African Communist, No. 44

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Alternative title African Communist Author/Creator South African Communist Party Publisher South African Communist Party (London) Date 1971 Resource type Magazines (Periodicals) Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa, Egypt Coverage (temporal) 1971 Description Editorial Notes; Nasser in Three Dimensions; Egypt's Workers Fight for Freedom; Oppenheimer's Role in S.A. Imperialism; South African Students Protest; African Workers and the National Struggle; Africa: Notes and Comments; Why I Joined the Communist Party; How the Party was Formed; Book Reviews; Documents; letters to the Editor; Poems. Format extent 135 page(s) (length/size)

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http://www.aluka.org The African

The African Communist NUMBER 44 1ST QUARTER 1971 NJASSER by ALDRIDGE

PRICE PER COPY AFRICA :5 p (1 shilling) ELSEWHERE: U.K. 15p (3/-) U.S. 50 cents SUBSCRIPTION AFRICA : 20 p (4 shillings) AIR MAIL £1. 10. 0. U.K. & EUROPE 1 year (four issues) 60p (12/-) 2 years £ 1. U.S. & CANADA 1 year $2.00 (Airmail $4.00) 2 years $ 3.50 (Airmail $ 6.00) STUDENTS: 25% discount on Surface mail subscriptions. AGENTS Usual trade discount (one-third of retail price) to bookshops and sellers ordering 6 or more copies EDITORIAL Articles, letters, material for articles and comments are invited on all themes of African interest, but payment is by prior arrangement only. ADDRESS All correspondence to the distributor: Inkululeko Publications 39 Goodge Street London W 1 England

THE AFRICAN COMMUNIST Published quarterly in the interests of African solidarity, and as a forum for Marxist-Leninist thought throughout our Continent, by the South African Communist Party No. 44 First Quarter 1971

CONTENTS Editorial Notes 5 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE C.P.S.A. NEW POPULATION FIGURES RHODESIA S.A. DIPLOMATIC OFFENSIVE THE TAN-ZAM RAILWAY PRESIDENT NASSER A VETERAN REVOLUTIONARY PASSES 21 NASSER IN THREE DIMENSIONS James Aldridge The well-known author of "The Diplomat"and "Cairo: Biography of a City " sums up the tchievements of the Nasser era. See 'President Nasser" in Editorial Notes. 31 EGYPT'S WORKERS FIGHT FOR FREEDOM H. Rashid A Survey of the history of the Egyptian trade union movement from 1890 to the present day. The author explains the contribution of the organised working class to the consolidation of the Nasser government and the struggle of Egypt against imperialism and Zionism. 38 OPPENHEIMER'S ROLE IN SA. IMPERIALISM Phineas Malifiga The development of the Anglo-American Corporation is analysed as part of the development of South African imperialism as a whole. The author also shows how "South Africa today fits snugly into the pattern of world tmperialism ". 45 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDENTS PROTEST Alexander Sibeko The revolt amongst South African students, both black and white, shows that they are "ripe and receptive for the ideals of the Freedom Charter, for the policy of the ANC, and for the Marxist- Leninist theory of our Party". 56 AFRICAN WORKERS AND THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE N. Malapo and B. Ngotyana The authors show how the Industrial Conciliation Act and job reservation are used by the White workers'unions to maintain their supremacy in the sphere of employment and wages, and how this in turn leads to the development of national consciousness on the part of the African workers.

65 AFRICA: NOTES AND COMMENTS A. Langa Uganda - The Common Man's Charter Morocco: King Hassan Hangs On Sudan : Planning for Socialism? Tanzania : Masses Acclaim Nyerere Guerrilla War in Chad : France's Real Interests 79 WHY I JOINED THE COMMUNIST PARTY J. J. Jabulani A Freedom Fighter describes his boyhood in the Transkei, his days at school, and the influences which gradually led him into the ranks of the Communist Party. 83 HOW THE PARTY WAS FORMED A. Lerumo A historical survey of the developments after the First World War and the Russian Revolution which led to the formation of the Communist Party of South Africa on July 30, 1921. See "50th Anniversary of the C.P.S.A. "in Editorial Notes. 99 BOOK REVIEWS "Liberia : The Evolution of Privilege" by J.Gus Liebenow (A. Lerumo) "My Life and the ICU" by Clements Kadalie (A.Lerumo) "Reluctant Rebellion" by Shula Marks (Thobile) "The Barrel of a Gun "by Ruth First (A. Langa) 117 DOCUMENTS Paper presented by a representative of the South African Communist Party to a seminar held in the G.D.R. to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels. 125 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 130 POEMS "Powdered Typhoons Unwind Slowly" by Scarlet Whitman "Identity Card" by Mahmud Darwish.

Editorial Notes 50th Anniversary of the C.P.S.A. This year, 1971, witnesses the 50th anniversary of the Communist Party of South Africa, which was born at a conference in Cape Town on July 30th, 1921. From small and inauspicious beginnings, the Communist Party grew to become one of the major factors moulding the destiny of our country, mobilising the most advanced elements in all population groups in the struggle against racial discrimination and for the transformation of South Africa into a socialist republic. From the outset, the Communist Party chose the revolutionary road, affiliating to the Communist International and spreading the ideas of Marxism-Leninism to all corners of the country. But the party was not only an organisation for the propagation of theory; it was above all a party of action, and wherever the masses were engaged in struggle, there were to be found party members, armed with a practical policy and backed by the organisation and discipline which set the party apart from all other bodies in the political arena. From the Rand Strike of 1922 to the guerrilla struggles of today, Communists have been in the forefront, both among the leadership and the rank and file, working with a purpose and a dedication which was an example to all their supporters and the envy of their opponents. The Communist Party began as an off-shoot of the Whitedominated Labour Movement in South Africa. It was transformed both by the pressures of its environment and by the insights provided by its ideology into the vanguard party of the struggle for national liberation, freedom and democracy. In the campaigns against the pass laws, the strikes for higher wages, the crusade against fascism, the defiance campaign of 1952, the stay-at-homes and bus boycotts of the fifties, the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe and the campaigns of sabotage and guerrilla warfare which bring us to present times, the union of the party with the masses was forged and tempered. Today the Communist Party is a mirror of its history and its times. It is no accident that both at the last national conference of the party in South Africa and at the recent augmented meeting of the Central Committee, delegates were drawn from all races and sections of the population, with Non-Whites in the majority. For decades the party has been a living witness to the fact that White and Black can work and live together in harmony, can share the hardships of struggle, can face prison and death for their beliefs. The mere existence of the party today, with its battle-tested core of cadres and ideology, is the best guarantee that the South Africa envisaged in the 1955 Freedom Charter can be converted intc reality. Perhaps the outstanding contribution of the Communist Party, both in theory and in practice, has been in perceiving and promoting the unity of national and class struggle. The essence of this contribution to Marxism is contained in the programme of the Party adopted at the 1962 conference. This proclaimed: "As its immediate and foremost task, the South African Communist Party works for a united front of national liberation. It strives to unite all sections and classes of oppressed and democratic people for a national democratic revolution to destroy White domination. The main content of this revolution will be the national liberation of the African people. Carried to its fulfilment, this revolution will at the same time put an end to every sort of race discrimination and privilege. The revolutio-1 will restore the land and wealth of the country to the people, and guarantee democracy, freedom and euality of rights, and opportunities to all. The Communist Party has no interests separate from those of the working people. The Communists are sons and daughters of the people, and share with them the over- riding necessity to put an end to the suffering and humiliation of apartheid. The destruction of colonialism and the winning of national freedom is the essential condition and the key for future advance to, the supreme aim of the Communist Party: the establishment of a socialist South Africa, laying the foundation of a classless, communist society." .The Central Committee of the Communist Party is making plans to commemorate its 50th Anniversary in an appropriate fashion. As far as this journal is concerned, we wish to inform our readers that each issue this year will contain material relating to the history of the Party. We hope to publish articles about various aspects of the Party's contribution to the South African revolution; statements by Party members, both in the leadership and at rank and file level; photographic material of various kinds illustrating events in our history and the people who took part in them. We sincerely trust that by the end.of this year we will have done enough to leave no one in any doubt as to the enduring value of the Party's work, and the vital importance, not only for South Africa, but for all independent Africa and indeed the world as a whole, of the Party's future role. Under

Nationalist rule, South Africa today poses a threat, not only to its own peoples, but also to the free African states and to world peace. Its arrogance grows with its imperialist appetite as the tentacles of the apartheid state stretch ever further into the African interior. Today, as ever, the South African Communist Party stands at the heart of the South African resistance movement. We invite all friends of the South African revolution to join with' us in commemoration of this 50th anniversary year. NEW POPULATION FIGURES The racial proportions of South Africa's population have changed significantly, according to the preliminary results of the 1970 census disclosed by the Minister of Statistics, Mr J. J. Loots, during the last session of Parliament. Here are the figures compared with the 1960 census: 1970 Total Percent 1960 Total Percent Whites 3,779,000 17.8 3,088,000 19.3 Africans 14,893,000 69.7 10,928,000 68.3 Coloureds 1,996,000 9.7 1,509,000 9.7 Asians 614,000 2.8 477,000 2.7 21,282,000 100.0 16,002,000 100.0 The percentage increase in the various racial groups between 1960 and 1970 was: Whites, 22.4 per cent; Africans, 36.3 per cent; Coloureds, 32.3 per cent; Asians, 28.7 per cent. These figures spell one fact out plainly - that the Whites constitute an ever- decreasing section of the total population of South Africa. Their appropriation of approximately 70 per cent of the national income becomes more and more glaring and less and less defensible. It has been amusing to see the Nationalist politicians trying to hide the truth about the census figures. The African population, for example, is not treated as a single entity, but is broken up, first, into Africans in the homelands and in the

"White" areas, and secondly, into ten ethnic groups, which are supposed to be separate from one another - and it is of course Nationalist policy and practice to keep them separate, not only in their so-called homelands, but also in their own separate areas in the urban townships. Thus Mr Loots pointed out in the Assembly that of the total number of Africans, 6,918,000 (46.5 per cent) were enumerated in the "Bantu homelands" as against 7,975,000 '(53.3 per cent) in the "White" areas. He then gleefully compared these with the 1960 figures. In 1960, 4,101,000 Africans (37.5 per cent) were enumerated in the homelands while 6,827,000 (62.5 per cent) were in the White areas. This showed the Government's policy of "decentralisation" was working, he said. The fact that in 1970 there were 1,148,000 more Africans in the "White" areas than in 1960 was ignored by Mr Loots, who preferred to stress the increase from 37.5 to 46.5 in the percentage of Africans in the homelands. This indicated a "considerable movement" of Africans from the White to the Bantu areas. It could mean that, of course; everybody knows of the hundreds of thousands of Africans who have been "endorsed out" of the urban areas and sent into the homelands with no land and no jobs during the last decade. Everybody knows of the 69 townships or concentration camps which have been set up in the homelands to accommodate these unfortunates, usually in the most primitive and deplorable circumstances. But the increased percentage of Africans ir the homelands could be due to other factors. Natural increase, for one thing, about which there are no statistics because, the Government keeps no complete record of African births and deaths. "Another factor which takes the gilt off Mr Loots' claim", commented the "Rand Daily Mail", "is that a large number of Africans who, for official purposes, live in 'homeland' areas are for all other purposes living in areas immediately adjacent to White areas - border areas such as Rosslyn and the Natal border areas which impinge on major urban areas.

"Mr Loots seemed to concede something of this nature during his announcement ... It had been essential, he said, to identify homelands which did not exist in 1960 and to determine the population figures for various African 'national units' which were not known in 1960. "To obtain meaningful comparisons between 1960 and 1970", he said, "the Department of Statistics had had to make 'geographical adjustments' - so that the African areas of 1960 should cover the same area geographically as the homelands demarcated for the 1970 census." The Opposition had no hesitation in accusing the Minister of juggling the facts to suit his own purpose - which was to establish that the percentage of Whites in relation to other national units in the White areas had increased from 25.8 per cent in 1960 to 26.2 per cent in 1970. Conversely, the number of Whites in the homelands had decreased by 25 per cent - from 24,000 to 18,000. In an article in the Nationalist paper "Die Beeld", Professor Hennie Coetzee, of Potchefstroom University, tried to make even more out of the figures. "If for argument's sake", he said, "it is accepted that Whites, Coloureds and Asians constitute the de jure population of the Republic, then this population increased from 5.065 million in 1960 to 6.393 million in the most recent count (by 1.328 million or 26.3 per cent). "Of these the Whites are the biggest component, namely 59.1 per cent." To reassure the Whites about their numerical predominance, the Nationalist propagandists used to make the claim on the basis of the 1960 figures that the "White nation" (whatever that is) constituted the biggest single population group - as though this in some magical way justified their grabbing 87 per cent of the land and 70 per cent of the nationalincome. But the 1970 figures have pushed the "White nation" into third place. There are 3,970,000 Zulu and 3,907,000 Xhosa who, even according to Nationalist race rules, constitute a bigger national group than the White total of 3,779,000 and everybody knows that there is no such thing as a White nation anyway, but English and Afrikaans-speaking South Africans who share profits and a high standard of living, but just about nothing else. Let the 1970 census figures speak for themselves. They tell only one meaningful story, and that is that the South African economy, which is a single integrated economy in which all its people are enmeshed, is more dependent on the NonWhite majority than ever. The Nationalists can juggle around with their ethnic groupings and Bantustans as much as they like. They cannot escape from the truth. For the record, the other ethnic groups enumerated in the 1970 census, in addition to the Zulu and Xhosa, were given as: 1,702,000 Tswana, 1,596,000 Sepedi, 1,416,000 Seshoeshoe, 731,000 Shangaan, 487,000 Swazi, 360,000 Venda, 230,000 South Ndebele, 180,000 North Ndebele and 314,000 others. RHODESIA Just as the British Government is trying to abandon the arms boycott of South Africa and resume normal relations with the apartheid Republic, so it is now, at the time 'of writing, announcing its determination to make a new approach to the rebel Smith regime in Rhodesia. In doing so, the British Government is once again flouting the wishes of the United Nations and of the Organisation of African Unity. In addition, it is flouting the famous five principles on which both Labour and Tories have in the past agreed any settlement must be based. Basically, the five principles say there must be an end to racial discrimination and unimpeded progress to majority rule. What is the position in Rhodesia? Smith's new Republic enforces racial discrimination and makes majority rule impossible. In a broadcast television interview on November 9, 1970, Smith was asked: "How long will it be, in your view, before there is universal franchise in Rhodesia - one man, one vote?" His reply: "I hope never. I hope we never degenerate to that sort of thing, which is the counting of heads like the counting of sheep." Yet in the same breath, Smith, like Vorster, claims Rhodesia is a bastion of democracy and Western civilisation, battling to preserve its standards in the face of barbarism. The world knows by now what "Western civilisation" and "democracy" mean in Rhodesia and South Africa. What the Tory Government is making clear is that it baicks these apartheid regimes to the hilt, and that it is determined to strengthen them, just as it strengthened Hitler's Reich before the Second World War, using the same outworn excuse anti-Communism. For Heath, as for Smith and Vorster, "Western civilisation" and "democracy" mean the same thing - the right of the rich minority -to exploit the poor majority. Race discrimination is only a part of the whole picture. What is also not so well realised in the outside world is that Rhodesia today is nothing more than a South African colony. Who says so, you ask? Why, none other than Lord Alport, former British High Commissioner in Salisbury, who reported after his tour of Southern Africa last October; "Rhodesia has become an integral part of the South African system, dependent on it for financial, military and commercial support. For Black Africa, the Rhodesia problem has been merged into the problem of South Africa and will not be solved separately from it." One interesting comment made by Lord Alport was that there had been "a substantial change in the composition of the European population, which in 1960 was under 220,000. In the last 10 years 82,000 have emigrated from Rhodesia and 74,000 have entered it. "Many of those leaving were the better off, more liberal, more British; many of those arriving have been embittered emigres from Zambia and Kenya; Afrikaners from South Africa; Portuguese, Italians and Germans of the artisan class - all natural reinforcements for the Rhodesia Front." We don't have to share Lord Alport's chauvinism or snobbery to agree with his estimate of the way things are going in Rhodesia. The October 23 issue of the Johannesburg "Financial Mail" summed up Rhodesia's dependence on South Africa in the following points:

1 Most of the important industrial companies have ties with South Africa. As an indication, no less than five of Rhodesia's top ten listed industrials are either controlled by, or associated with, SA companies (Rhodesian Breweries, Hippo Valley, Premier Portland Cement, Plate Glass and BAT). 2 The biggest of these companies, Rhodesian Breweries, also holds the key to the country's food and liquor industries, and is its most ambitious hotel developer. 3 Anglo-American, through its Rhodesian subsidiary, is responsible for such key industries as steel (RISCO), coal (Wankie), nickel (Trojan-Bindura) and has important stakes in sugar, citrus and timber. 4 Anglo, JCI and SA Manganese are leaders in mineral prospecting. Messina's Mangula is the country's biggest copper producer. 5 South Africa absorbs about 30 per cent of Rhodesia's exports for her own use and since UDI has beconfe Rhodesia's most important outlet for asbestos and chrome. Including other commodities which are allowed to pass through its ports, South Africa probably accounts for about half of Rhodesia's, total exports. 6 SA probably supplies more than half Rhodesia's imports. 7 With sanctions blocking the traditional British source, Rhodesia has had to rely heavily on managerial skills from SA to meet expanding needs. It could be added that the Rhodesian economy would have collapsed within one week of UDI if the Rhodesian £ had not been backed by the SA Reserve Bank, and that South Africa has today the biggest stake in Rhodesia's capital market, and is the biggest source of capital for development. Smith cannot move without Vorster. Vorster visited Rhodesia in May 1970, and Smith visited Vorster three times in the period that followed. Foreign Minister H. Muller visited Rhodesia just before Smith announced he was prepared to enter into new talks with Britain. Towards the end of the year, heavy reinforcements of South African troops were sent to Rhodesia to help deal with the growing threat from ANC/ZAPU freedom fighters. Rhodesia and South Africa are one and the same problem. The Tories are trying to weld the two countries into a solid anti-African front. The African freedom fighters and African leaders everywhere must recognise the Smith-Vorster axis as the most serious threat to their future, and must unite their forces to defend themselves against an enemy as dangerous and formidable as Hitler was in the Europe of the 1930s. S.A.DIPLOMATIC OFFENSIVE Those African leaders who show signs of capitulating to the South African diplomatic offensive, otherwise known as Vorster's "outward policy", must be branded as traitors to the cause of Africa. Let them be named and exposed in these columns Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast Bongo of Gabon Hubert Maga of Dahomey Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam of Mauritius Busia of Ghana Chief Leabua Jonathan of Lesotho Banda of Malawi Tsiranana of Madagascar The states of Niger, Togo and Upper Volta are reported to be ready to follow suit - and in Asia, Iran has succumbed. These countries talk of entering into a "dialogue" with South Africa as the best way of changing the apartheid system. Let these gentlemen ask themselves what has emerged from the "dialogue" South Africa has been holding with other countries for the last 300 years - only an intensification of oppression and the impoverishment of the majority of the South African peoples. Let these gentlemen also ask themselves why South Africa is prepared to enter into a "dialogue" with independent Black Africa when she is not prepared to hold any form of dialogue with her own African people, who are denied the franchise or any say in the running of their own country. The Africans of Johannesburg were recently refused perMission to hold a meeting to discuss the 10 per cent fare increase which had been slapped on them by their white bosses - and this at a time when five major crashes had occurred on the Soweto-Johannesburg line alone in the past two years - at a cost of hundreds of African dead and injured. Let these gentlemen ask themselves why it is that they will be declared "honorary whites" if they ever visit South Africa, while 2,000 of their fellow Blacks in South Africa are arrested every day because they do not possess the right documents. And finally, let these gentlemen remember that Premier Vorster, in a radio broadcast on November 2, 1970, said that in pursuance of his outward policy he was prepared to enter into diplomatic relations with "friendly" African states, but only on the basis of "non-interference in one another's affairs". He will take advice about apartheid from nobody. Let these gentlemen not pretend they are out to influence the South African Government to abandon apartheid. They are out for trade and investment. Not surprisingly the "Star" reported on November 6: "Ivory Coast's desire for a new form of relationship with South Africa is understood to have the full support of France's President, Mr Pompidou. Some circles in Paris even claim that President Houphouet-Boigny's policy has been master-minded by Mr Pompidou personally. "It is thought significant in Paris that the Ivory Coast President, who wants to call a summit on South Africa, said on Wednesday in Abidjan that the arms embargo on South Africa 'was entering the realm of the ridiculous'. "France is known to be anxious to maintain her valuable arms contracts with South Africa, while at the same time keeping friendly ties with Black Africa". And let these gentlemen finally ponder on the resolution passed by the Transvaal Nationalist Party Congress in November 1970 which called on the Government to build up friendly relations with other countries "and extend our sphere of influence in Africa". The South African Government is prepared to hold dialogues with other states not for the benefit of Africa but to buttress and strengthen apartheid and "extend its sphere of influence in Africa". It hopes to do this by destroying African unity, by playing off English-speaking against Francophone Africa, by bribery and corruption of "friendly" African governments with the aid of a special fund set aside for the Foreign, Minister by Parliament. We remember that South African aid to Biafra was channeled through the Ivory Coast and Gabon - arms, food and medical supplies. Does anybody think this was done for the benefit of the peoples of Biafra? It was done to help in the break-up of Nigeria, to promote the Balkanisation of Africa for the benefit of the imperialists 'and racists who have plundered our continent for so long. There is a war being fought in southern Africa - a war which will settle the fate not only of our own people but of all Africa, and maybe the peace of the world as well. Those who help our enemies in this war must not be surprised if one day, perhaps sooner than they think, we call them to account. THE TAN - ZAM RAILWAY Work has commenced, with the backing of the Chinese People's Republic, of the building of a railway link between Tanzania and Zambia. This is a project of far-reaching significance to the peoples not only of these two territories, but to the whole of Southern Africa. Railway building and other communications in our continent have always been a reflection of imperialist economic and political interests. They have not been built for the good of the inhabitants or the development of the internal economy, but above all for the purpose of transporting African resources abroad : characteristically, the railway lines run from the mines to the nearest port. Among the most recent examples are the Swaziland-Mozambique rail-link, designed only to ship out iron-ore; and Nimba Mountain-Port Buchanan railway in Liberia, built for the same purpose.

Insofar as there was a choice of routes, it was invariably made in accordance with conflicting imperialist interests and ambitions. Thus Cecil Rhodes' beginning to his dream project of an all-British Cape to Cairo railway was to link the Cape Colony with Rhodesia via what was then Bechuanaland Protectorate, thus deliberately skirting the Transvaal. And Kruger's Republic exerted every effort to push a rail link to Delagoa Bay to gain a non-British outlet to the sea. All Zambia's outlets today, as a result of these manoeuverings long ago between powers who cared nothing for real African interests, are through enemy-occupied territory. . The great significance, therefore, of the Tan-Zam railroad is that it is the first great project of this kind built to serve not foreign but African interests. Its completion will serve to liberate Zambia from its dependence on the colonialists of Salisbury, Mozambique and Pretoria. It will also link Tanzania with its natural hinterland with far-reaching economic, social and cultural benefits for both. It is therefore a most real I. contribution to the goal of African- Unity: the goal of all African patriots. With the opening of the Botswana-Zambia road link, this development promises still greater perspectives for Zarnmathe future. The railway line will run from Dar es Salaam to Lusaka, as shown by the dotted line in the map alongside. Notice to readers Decimalisation and increased costs of printing and postage have made it necessary for us to change the subscription charges for the "African Communist". Details are given on the inside front cover.

PRESIDENT NASSER The untimely death of President Nasser on September 28 zame as a shock to the whole of progressive humanity, for whom he stood as a symbol of the resurrection of Egypt and the liberation of the Arab peoples from the clutches of imperialism and its instrument in the Middle East, Zionism. Our Central Committee sent the following cable to the Arab Socialist Union: "The Central Committee of the South African Communist Party joins with you in mourning the loss of Abdul Gamal Nasser, one of the greatest Arab leaders, an outstanding African patriot and uncompromising fighter against imperialism. We pledge our continued wholehearted support in the struggle of the Arab peoples against imperialism and for the restoration of the rights of all Palestinian Arabs". In this issue of the "African Communist" we carry an article specially written by the writer James Aldridge, who lived in Egypt for many years and last year had published a fascinating book entitled "Cairo: Biography of a City" based on his specialist knowledge of the country, its history and its problems. In this article, Aldridge sums up Nasser's unique contribution to the development of modern Egypt and the liberation struggle of the Arab peoples. Also in this issue we carry an article by H.Rashid entitled "Egypt's Workers Fight for Freedom", outlining the history' of the Egyptian trade union movement since 1890 and its role in Egyptian politics today. We gladly devote this space and attention to Egypt because we cannot stress too much how intimately the struggle of the Arab peoples are bound up with our own. Their victories are our victories. The loss of President Nasser was a blow not merely to Egypt but to all African freedom fighters.

A VETERAN REVOLUTIONARY PASSES Rebecca Bunting : 1882 - 1970 "The African Communist" respectfully lowers its red banner in honour of Rebecca Bunting, one of the few survivors of the gallant little band who founded the Communist Party of South Africa nearly fifty years ago, and who died in London on November 8, 1970. Rebecca Bunting was born in Lithuania on 22 January 1888. After taking part in revolutionary activities against Tsarist despotism, she came to South Africa on the eve of the first world war. Here she entered the labour movement and married S.P.Bunting (1873-1936) a foremost leader among the founders of the International Socialist League and later of the Communist Party into which the League merged in 1921. She was elected to the first Executive Committee of the Communist Party at its founding conference, and was a member of the South African delegation to the Sixth Congress of the Communist International in 1928. She accompanied her husband in his stormy campaign for election to Parliament for the Transkei in 1929, at a time when Africans still retained some voting rights in the Cape, though they could only elect a 'White' representative. In the face of bitter intimidation and police repression, the Buntings carried the Party's message of liberation throughout this wide rural area. The repression prevented Sidney Bunting from winning the seat, though it was no little consolation to his widow, in later years, to see her son Brian elected by the Africans of the Cape Western Division as a member of Parliament, where he served with distinction until removed under the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950. A tragic period occurred towards the end of S.P.Bunting's life when a sectarian group, which for a short period dominated the Party he had sacrificed so much to build, undemocratically removed him from its ranks and slandered his name. But neither he nor his wife ever wavered in their faith in the Party or its principles. A new Party leadership paid tribute to

S.P.Bunting's great contribution; and his widow returned to active membership and participation. In 1963 she visited her family, then exiled in Britain, and after a further year in South Africa came again to London where she spent her remaining days, becoming an active member of the Communist Party of Great Britain until the end. She also took part as a member of the External Mission of the African National Congress. On her eightieth birthday in 1968 the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party paid tribute to her 'very many years of devoted and exemplary service to the Party and the national liberation movement of our country.' The message concluded by expressing confidence 'that our cause will be victorious ... that we shall build the free South Africa of our aspirations, our strivings and sacrifices.' Alas, she did not live to see that day; but her own confidence remained undimmed. On her deathbed she said to a hospital nurse: 'I am a Communist and proud of it!' We may be sure that the free South Africa for which she strove so long and courageously will remember and honour the name of Rebecca Bunting.

NASSER in Three Dimensions James Aldridge In 1956 when I came back from spending almost a year in Egypt, I had a hard time convincing my Left-wing and Communist friends at home that Gamal Abd el Nasser was not a Fascist, not an anti-Semite, not a brutal dictator, but was in fact an incorruptible nationalist leader who was trying desperately to find a way of rescuing his country from over two thousand years of continued occupation. I found that my Left-wing friends expected Nasser to be a ready-made international socialist, a communist, a Lenin. Why wasn't he? they wanted to know indignantly. How could he be trusted if he wasn't one 6r the other? This was just before the Suez War, and I found that most of my friends not only distrusted Nasser but were mostly pro-Israel, and believed, without any analysis at all, in the proper democracy and peaceful intentions of that invented nation. , What was most difficult to swallow about Gamal Abd el Nasser at the time was his attitude to Left-wing socialists and communists. He had put them iW prison. In fact it was not Nasser personally who put the communists in jail, although he was no friend to communism then. It was really the' Right-wing of the officer corps and the political police who had arrested and imprisoned the communists, and had treated them brutally in the detention camps. In fact the communists had begun to support many of Nasser's policies even from jail during and after the Suez war, until they were finally able to take a full part in the life of the country in 1962-3. Gamal Abd el Nasser was not a communist. He was not a Lenin. And he only became a socialist after the success of the 1952 revolution. In his Philosophy of the Revolution, for instance, there is no mention of socialism. Nasser the young soldier, Nasser the young patriot, Nasser the young revolutionary was originally a nationalist thinker who believed that once the young officers had thrown out Farouk and the old politicians, a veritable army of honest men in Egyptian political life would come forward and pick up the Egyptian future from where the young officers had brought it to. In his Philosophy of the Revolution Nasser makes it clear that the officers' role would come to an end, politically, when the Farouk regime had been brought down. But what really happened? The Same old politicians came to the young officers with the same prospects of corruption and deception and self-interest Only when it became clear that the politicans wanted to set Egypt on the same old imperialist path did Gamal Abd el Nasser realise that the young officers would have to continue the political revolution themselves. Even before this, two things had always been important to Nasser. One was his awareness that imperialism was the cause of Egypt's troubles. And the other washis feeling that he and his fellow officers had to have the support and sympathy of the Egyptian population if the revolution was to continue. I This forced Nasser to look more deeply into what the social future would be. What he had said in his Philosophy of the Revolution was that there must be two revolutions: the first one must be a simple, overthrowing of the old regime, and the second one must be social revolution (though he didn't say what kind). And it was this social revolution that

4 Masses of mourning Egyptians pack a Cairo square as overhead flies a helicopter bearing the body of their late leader President Nasser. The helicopter was en route to the Arab Socialist Union Headquarters, frofn where the funeral cortege began. began to occupy Nasser when he realised that he would personally have to lead the revolution into the future. Initially, Nasser tried the progressive capitalist way. He knew that foreign domination was a curse and that feudalism was done for. But he wanted industry and commerce to emerge, somehow, with a rich future which would rescue the Egyptian masses from their poverty, misery and backwardness. It is difficult to know at exactly what point Nasser came to the conclusion that capitalism was not the way, and that the only answer was socialism. We do know that Nasser was a voracious reader of political and philosophical volumes, and in particular the works of successful statesmen. We know he read Lenin, Stalin, Mao and even the Zionist Weissman looking for answers. What seemed certain is that the Suez war of 1956 pushed Nasser deeper into the conviction that the one way to solve Egypt's problems was through a socialist system of some sort. Even when he nationalised the canal, just before the war, this was more a pragmatic necessity than part of a socialist ideology. But after the Suez War his thinking was more openly and theoretically and organisationally socialist. SOVIET INFLUENCE And, of course, his whole attitude to the Soviet Union underwent a considerable change at the same time. There is no evidence that he was ever hostile to the Soviet Union, as some critics have said. On the whole, his world attitude was one of neutrality from the outset. He never pretended that Egypt had become part of a "Soviet" bloc. He always insisted on Egypt's independence. And there is no doubt that the Soviet Union did not ask Nasser to behave in any other way but independently. It was this that eventually gave Nasser confidence and respect for the Soviet Union, and inspired the genuine praise for Moscow's efforts to help Egypt. The Soviet decision to finance and help build the Aswan Dam obviously had a profound meaning for Nasser, because he knew Egypt was going to rot to death if the dam wasn't built, and the Anglo-Americans and the Zionists had done everything in their power to see that it was not built. It was after the Suez War that Nasser also began to understand the necessity of the whole Arab revolution. This was the real third dimension of Nasser's thinking, and it was this conviction, even more than his original nationalist conviction, that made Nasser the greatest figure in Arab history since Saladin, who was the last great Arab to unify and organise the eastern world against-the ravaging bestialities of the European crusaders. WORKING CLASS There is no doubt that Nasser only came to his final attitudes after a great deal of thought and study. It was this unusual capacity to go on studying and learning that made Nasser a unique man among the word's statesmen. The lessons he learned about his own people were deep and real. Though he was born the son of a poor postmaster, nonetheless as an officer he could have deserted his class, as so many of those army officers from poorer families did. But his real attachment to the working classes and the peasantry came quite consciously later on through his deliberate efforts (even after he became the President of the Republic) to understand them. It is interesting in this respect to compare him with Kwame Nkrumah, another great socialist figure of Africa. Nkrumah seemed to bring socialism almost intellectually to Ghana. Nasser, on the other hand, learned it almost as a pragmatic necessity, and he was able to depend on powerful loyalties with this practical approach and his incorruptible spirit. Nasser was usually pictured in the western press as a man hated by his own people - a sinister, military 'boss'. This was also stimulated in most parts of the world by Zionist propaganda. It took years to nail these lies. The truth is that Nasser never really sought popular acclaim. He certainly knew the value of his personal prestige, and he could give very moving speeches. But he was not really a speechmaker or a deceiver; he was never a good public relations man because he never tried to be, despite the picture the west created of him. The Egyptians themselves knew very well the history of their political leaders during almost a hundred years of British occupation. One by one they had been corrupted in one way or another. There is no doubt that the British tried every kind of clever and persuasive corruption they knew to get Nasser. They failed ignominiously, and this only helped Nasser to win the confidence of his people. DEATH PLOTS When corruption fails, imperialism usually turns to assassination, and when assassination fails, they try war. There were at least five attempts on Nasser's life, probably more. Two were known to be by Zionists, and the rest were by various assorted imperialist agents. When these failed, they tried war. Nasser had to fight two important wars after the revolution of 1952: the first one was the Suez War of 1956, and the second was the famous 'six day' war of 1967. When Israeli leaders commented on Nasser's death, some of them pointed out that he had lost both wars. But did he? The Egyptians say that they lost the battles, but not the war. And many intelligent Israelis agree with this, estimate. But is it fair to ask why Egypt lost the battles? In the case of the 1956 attack by Britain and France and Israel, it seemed hopeless from the outset, and yet there is no doubt that Egyptian resistance at Port Said made it clear that it was not going to be an outright victory at all, even if the combined attack went on. But Egypt had lost the Sinai. AIR POWER It is very important to remember in discussing any war in the area that whoever wins the air, wins the war. When the British were fighting the Italians and later the Germans in the Western Desert during the Second World War, those tremendous seesaw advances and retreats along the coast were always determined by who controlled the air. When the Germans had the air, we ran. When we got the air, the Germans ran. There was nothing else, they could do in those open deserts. Anyone who was in the famous panic that took us back to el Alamein knows that Egypt's retreats and defeats in the Sinai were not nearly as panic-stricken as the famous 'flap' of British forces back to el Alamein. There is no doubt that it was thelong-range British bombing of Egyptian planes on the ground which gave the French Air force the chance to operate freely over the Sinai, and to wipe out the Egyptian army with napalm from the air. That was really what won the war of 1956. But what happened in 1967? The Israelis themselves, in articles published by their generals and in the films they have made, make no bones that it was their air force that really won that war in the first three hours when they wiped out the entire Egyptian air force on the ground. The Israelis no longer disguise the fact that they made lengthy military preparations for the attack. They boasted after the war that they had prepared for this exact situation for two years. In any case it was brilliantly done, and the result was that, with the Egyptian air forces destroyed on the ground, the Israeli air force then turned on the Egyptian forces in the Sinai and burned them up with napalm. It was the Israeli air force that defeated even the Egyptian armour on the ground, rather than Moshe Dayan, who simply had to mop up the burned-out remnants. This is a military explanation, but one must also ask, in estimating Gamal Abd el Nasser's role, how he allowed this to happen. How, after the Suez war, could Egypt not see that the air mattered, that vigilance was essential? POLITICAL ARENA Here one enters the complex arena of Egyptian politics. Though Nasser had steadily been shifting the responsibility for the future of Egypt away from the military to the Arab socialist party, the actual government of Egypt remained a very delicate balance of reactionary and progressive elements.

For the most part the leaders of the army, and particularly of the air force, were the young guard bourgeoise who wanted the army to go on ruling Egypt, and to lean more in a westerly direction, even though it was the Soviet Union that was supplying them with arms and equipment. There is no doubt that after the Suez War of 1956 there was a growing division between Nasser's belief in socialism, and this kind of army thinking. Nasser knew this, and leaned more and more, both in private and public behaviour, on the potential of the Egyptian working class and the peasantry. Again and again he said they were the real foundation of the Egyptian revolution. At the same time he could not simply do away with his old allies in the army. The right wing was still, therefore, very strong (and still is). Also Nasser obviously believed that in 1967, despite their differences of opinion, the army and the air force were at least at the peak of their preparedness and surveillance. That was a real miscalculation. There is no doubt that in 1967 the Egyptian air force leaders were thoroughly unprepared for a surprise attack, which is unforgivable. That Nasser eventually took the blame for the defeat was typical of the man, although he was really a victim of that old cleft stick between left and right. But after the defeat of 1967 he acted quickly on the lesson he had learned. He called on Field Marshal Hakim Amer to transform the army into a genuine implement of socialist policy, rather than remain a separate and dangerous entity in itself. Nasser was finally facing up to the right-wing soldiers who had decided to throw everything behind Hakim Amer's purely military and bourgeois outlook. Hakim Amer's arrest and suicide were a personal tragedy for Nasser. More than anyone else, he and Hakim Amer were the two young men who had planned the original military operation of 1952 which had ousted Farouk. They were the two young men who had hoped to lead Egypt into a new future. But whereas Nasser learned as he went along what the real problems were, and had the courage to face the social inevitability of his task, Hakim Amer remained what he was

- a landed army man with the limited objectives of a bourgeois Egyptian who, in a final crisis, would look westwards for help. NASSER'S HERITAGE Tragedies, invasions, international pressures, the continuing delicacy of the political balance in Egypt, the very responsibility he had taken on as spokesman for the whole Arab revolution - these were the things Nasser had to live with day and night. He obviously drove himself to the limit, and it was clear to his friends that it was going to end in his early death. He was diabetic, and he was warned by his doctors to take it easy. He was warned by Soviet doctors. When he should have been resting he was putting an end to the war which Hussein and his old imperialist friends had started against the Palestine Liberation forces. His death was certainly the price Egypt paid for the transformation of their society from a backward, feudal, colonial mess, to a newborn, revivified socialist nation. All the esoential means of production in Egypt are nationalised, so are the banks, the insurance companies, transport, many of the distributive and wholesale sectors, and all mines, fisheries, newspapers, publishing etc. etc. One has been speaking of Nasser. In effect, Nasser really reflected the historical necessity of Egypt's emergence. The original officers' revolt of 1952 could not have succeeded if it had not had the indirect support and later the very direct support, of the working classes and the peasantry. The young officers had brought about the transformation, but the ground had been prepared for years by popular opposition and an organised political struggle against the King and the British. Nasser knew this. He knew it better than anyone else among the young officers, excepting perhaps the Marxists among them. He didn't always see eye to eye with his Left-wingers such as Aly Sabry and Khaled Mohedein, but as time went on he was coming closer and closer to their point of view. It is pointless to speculate what direction Gamal Abd el Nasser would have taken had he lived. But the logic of the man makes it fair to suggest that he could only move farther and farther to the left. As it is, the real monument to his life is the three dimensional success of his thinking and his leadership in 1) getting rid of the old feudal regime and the imperialists; 2) beginning Egypt's social transformation, and 3) laying the foundation for the unity of the Arab peoples and the final success of the Arab revolution. LABOUR MONTHLY Founded 1921 Editor: R. Palme Dutt A Marxist commentary on political events with an international reputation over 49 years in the cause of national liberation and socialism 4/- (20 pence) monthly - £1. 4. 0. (£1.20) half-yearly subscription - £2.8. 0. (£2.40) yearly. (Students : £2. 4.0. (£2.20) yearly - £1.2. 0. (£1.10) half- yearly) all post free (surface mail) from - - DEPARTMENT AC, 134 Ballards Lane London N3 2PD England

EGYPT'S WORKERS FIGHT FOR FREEDOM H. Rashid Since 1952 the Egyptian working class has been playing an increasingly dominant role in shaping the non-capitalist road of development in Egypt. The primary political and economic struggles of the Egyptian working class began during the period of colonialism and intensified in the contemporary period, after the declaration of a socialist program. Recently, partly as a result of the state of war existing between Egypt and the reactionary government of Israel, the 27 National Unions have become leaders in taking an aggressive anti-imperialistic stance on Israel South Vietnam, and the latest U.S. imperialistic aggressive actions in Cambodia. Some observers attributed this recent activity of the National Unions to the June war, others to the March 30 1968, programme. Still others assert that the Egyptian working class has become more conscious of its position in society as a result of the external events since 1967. Without a doubt we can affirm that the Egyptian working class of today has entered a more progressive phase of development. In order to understand this development, we must examine the main political struggles of the Egyptian working class since 1890. This article will briefly review these struggles in the following significant phases: 1) 1890 to 1952, the period of colonialism; 2) 1952 to 1961, the period of nation building; 3) 1961 to 1967, the emergence of a plan for a non-capitalist road of development; and 4) 1967 to the present, the period of increased workers' participation in the Egyptian state.

THE COLONIAL PERIOD The first 'trade union' emerged in 1897-98, despite the difficult circumstances of colonialism. The majority of the Egyptian population consisted of peasants who tilled the land for a feudal lord. However, a small capitalist class of merchants and small industry owners who controlled most of the trade and manufacturing, was rapidly emerging. At this time exploitation of the people by both foreign and national capitalists was at its peak and labour was the cheapest commodity of production. In spite of the fierce competition of the different capitalist countries for capitulation rights, the first trade union was secretly born. It was branded a criminal conspiracy by the colonial government and was consequently severely repressed. In spite of this repression the first strike in 1899 by the cigarette manufacturing workers, protesting against the introduction of labour saving machines, had a definite anti-feudal and anti-colonial emphasis. During the next year a series of bitter conflicts and struggles between workers and employers on a variety of issues such as wage increases, working hours, accident compensation and leaving indemnities occurred. Undoubtedly, before World War I conditions were such that workers were becoming conscious of their position in history, and were fighting for basic democratic rights. This phase of the struggle came to an abrupt end with World War I. Egypt became a British protectorate and union activity was rigidly suppressed by the colonialists. World War I, resulting from the interimperialistic contradictions between Germany and the rest of Europe, was financed by the working class of the capitalist and colonial countries. Egypt was no exception; the British imposed rigid labour laws on the Egyptian workers who were forced to work overtime without an increase in pay. In 1919 the seven existing unions played a major role in a heroic national revolt against British imperialism. The participation of both peasants and urban workers in this struggle was precipitated by the very low wages, which did not increase with rising prices. However, at this time, the workers' and peasants' efforts to win legal recognition were lost and they were not able significantly to improve the basic conditions of life. In the thirties, the more active political role of the workers, with respect to the colonial regime, resulted in murders of many of the labour leaders instrumental in organising mass support against foreign domination. During this phase of the struggle for national democratic rights, workers in general had a work day of not less than 10 hours. The six day week was not common and there were no medical services, paid vacations, holidays or laws defining working conditions. Between World War I and World War II political parties representing the national capitalists and the colonialists attempted to contain the growing labour movement. The local bourgeoisie and the colonialists competed fiercely for the political support of the workers, employing whatever means were necessary to obscure their consciousness and to lead them to serve their own political and personal ambitions. After a long period of strikes, in 1942 the parliament passed a law recognising unions. However, more strikes and labour struggles from 1942 to 1952 reflected the fact that this law was not as progressive as it was previously thought to be. While this law recognized the right of workers in industry and commerce to be organized, it denied the same right to the majority of the working population - the farmers. Unions were required to seek previous authorization through administrative registration before conducting trade union affairs ,i1d activities. The government also reserved the right to dissolve trade unions at any time with no provisions for appeal. While workers sought to change these laws, the government, representing the large landowners and capitalists, pressed to introduce laws to guarantee the continuous repression of progressive movements and organisations. By 1952 the consciousness of the Egyptian- working class reflected the knowledge of the necessity to struggle against colonialism and national capitalism, represented by the royal family, However, this awareness had not yet crystallized into a political programme. The 1952 Revolution The Egyptian revolution of July 23, 1952, was organized and led by the army. While some elements of the bourgeoisie supported the revolution, the proletariat was still too weak to lead an effective political struggle. Even though the leadership of the revolution exhibited antifeudal, anti-imperialist, and national liberation characteristics, it was not a worker - peasant revolution in the base. The first significant achievement of the revolution was the land reform laws through which an attempt was made to distribute land to the landless. The second important measure was the cancellation of the 1942 labour law and the promulgation of new labour laws, introducing numerous and various reforms of general working conditions, and granting agricultural workers the right to organize themselves. In addition it recognized the right of the working people to form their own General Union Federation. Registration of unions was abolished and the dissolution of trade unions came under the jurisdiction of the courts of law rather than that of the government. In 1956 the unions joined the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, and in 1957 they formed the Egyptian Confederation of Workers. The land reform programme did not promote the flow of capital to industry as expected. In 1955 there was a surplus of 45 million Egyptian pounds in the agricultural sphere, but only six million Egyptian pounds were invested in industry. The national bourgeoisie, pursuing their own interests, did not invest in the state sector and thus turned over millions of pounds to Western capitalists. The bourgeoisie grew richer, while the unions were controlled by lackeys of the national capitalists. In the period from 1952 to 1961, working conditions improved only minimally and union participation in the shaping of Egyptian society was slight. The orientation of the Egyptian bourgeoisie finally proved to be incompatible with the aims of the military government. In 1952 there were four million non-agricultural workers in Egypt. The national capitalists were preventing the development of the society and as a result of the slow pace of industrialization jobs were not being created. The "Second Revolution" In 1961 the military government began to conduct the "second revolution", striking out against the Egyptian capitalists and nationalizing the heart of national capital, the Misr Bank and insurance companies, foreign trade, the merchant fleet, etc. These actions were specifically aimed against the exploiter class. The Arab Socialist Union, which became the main party for building socialism, was established. No less than 50% of its electoral bodies were to consist of peasants and workers. Finally, in 1962, the National Congress of the Popular Forces approved the Charter of National Action, the governmental statement which proclaimed that Egypt was going to overcome its social and economic backwardness through the path of socialism. This charter in effect delineated the role of the Workers in building Egyptian society on a non-capitalist basis, and was influential in the reorganisation of the unions. In 1964, freedom of association was extended to workers including civil servants and the General Unions were reorganized into 27 National Unions. The Arab Socialist Union, the governing body of the country, was mainly composed bf workers and peasants. One of the first acts following the socialist proclamation was an amendment to the 1952 Land Reform Law. This amendment was based on the realization that since 60% of the Egyptian population is engaged in agriculture, the development and success of the revolution depends, to a great extent, on the alignment of forces in the rural areas. The second land reform law decreased the maximum general holding from 200 feddans to 100 feddans (approximately 40 hectares). In 1964 small owners (having less than 5 feddans) accounted for 94.1% of all owners and held 51.1% of the land; medium owners (5-50 feddans), were 0.4% of all landowners and held 15.2% of the land. Very rich owners had disappeared completely. However in twelve years the number of well-to-do owners (20-52 feddans) grew from 22,000 to 29,000; in addition, medium holdings (from 10 to 25 feddans) grew even more rapidly. These figures indicate that the countryside continues to be a focus for the development of Egyptian capitalism. Through the formation of medium-range land holdings the emergence of this landowning stratum of private capitalists, profiting from the agrarian reforms, and developing at the expense of the workers, has proved to be an unexpected breeding-ground of counter-revolutionary forces. The unevenness of development of the private and state sectors allowing for the development of capitalist tendencies in the agricultural sphere, is attributed to the rapid industrialization and the enormous growth of the state sector, on the one hand, and the presence of channels for private capitalist accumulation on the other. The Drive to Socialism There were no committed socialists among the early Egyptian military leaders. In 1952 the main purpose of the military was to rid the country of the colonialists. It was not until the 1962 charter that Egyptian leaders had publicly proclaimed a theoretical basis for the development of Egypt through socialism. This charter, accepted by referendum, reflected the fact that the leadership and the masses of Egypt were committed to a socialist path. However, the new socialist society inherited the colonial governmental structures that tended to hamper the development of socialism. A major segment of the civil servants attempted to sabotage the President's policies and to prevent Marxists from participating in labour unions. The service sector of the economy grew extensively and the massive immigration of cheap labour to the cities allowed private contractors (holding 60% of all construction in the country) to capitalize on the urgent need for low-cost housing. In spite of the fact that a new generation of civil servants, educated on socialist principles, was a necessity, progressive educational programmes did not materialise, and the new civil servant class differed very little in political orientation from that of the previous regime. The military, for the most part, was also characterised by nonprogressive political orientations. Having become integrated into the governmental apparatus, officers' wages were five times higher than those of most civil servants. The many privileges that went with officer's status tended to emphasise the bourgeois bureaucratic tendencies. With the private and state sector of society controlled by anti-socialist elements, only the workers could lead society on a progressive course. The June War The June 1967 war proved to be the stimulus for the workers to move Egyptian society on the path of socialism as proclaimed in the National Charter of 1961. The corrupt military elite was ousted from commanding position along with Marshal Amer, tht head of the antisocialist group in the army. For the first time the Egyptian worker took an active role in ridding the country of anti-socialist elements. The iron and steel workers in Helwan organized strikes and demonstrations protesting the far too lenient sentences given to the military participants in the government. The overwhelming support of President Nasser by the working class when he addressed the Helwan workers, reflected the comradely alliance between the workers and the President, marking the first time the working class openly criticised the reactionary strata in Egypt. With the workers' support President Nasser attacked the reactionary group in leadership positions. The right wing, headed by Zacharea Moheri El-Din, the first vice- President who attempted to retard industrialisation and reduce employment, was attacked, by Nasser. Zacharea Moheri El-Din was dismissed and his economic plans rejected. The programmes of industrialization, building the state sector and developing cooperation with the socialist countries were re-affirmed. The "March 30, 1968 programme" as it was known, called for a restructuring of the Arab Socialist Union and its transformation into the vanguard of the people. Since the Helwan events of 1968 the trade unions have played a more active role in building socialism and have become outspoken against imperialism. The U.A.R. trade unions advocate: 1) the struggle against the legacy of colonialism, neo-colonialism, zionism, and the extension of every possible support to those involved in the struggle against foreign domination and imperialist aggression: 2) the struggle against racial discrimination and apartheid policies as practised in Israel and South Africa: 3) condemnation of aggression in all forms and insistence upon the withdrawal of all armies from foreign soil: 4) a lasting international peace based on justice and human rights: 5) an end to monopoly domination. Today there are approximately nine million industrial workers in a population of 33 million. Over half of the working population belongs to the agricultural sector of the society. The A.S.U. is composed of farmers and industrial workers who are the leaders in policy formation of the Egyptian society. The relationship between the trade unions and the A.S.U. is not of an administrative type, and there is no question of superior or subordinate positions. It is a relationship between the vanguard of the workers and the entire working force represented by this unified mass organisation. The events from the "first workers' strike" in 1899 to the {lelwan events of 1963 are part of the continuing struggles of the Egyptian working class. It would be naive to think that the working class of Egypt has triumphed over the reactionary forces in Egypt today. However since the 1952 revolution the working class are being moulded together by their common experience in the line of work and in fighting Israeli aggression. In spite of the contradictions existing in Egyptian society today, the leadership of the Egyptian working class is strong and confident of its position in society and clearly understanding that the major struggle in the world today is to fight U.S. imperialism and racism.

Oppenheimer's Role in S.A. Imperialism Phineas Malinga In the earlier, creative period of capitalism, the men who made great fortunes could sometimes claim that they had done so by originating a new process or doing something else of value to the community. That is very seldom true in the modern period. Today, the typical fortune is made by the man who succeeds in preying on his fellow capitalists as well as on the working class. In very many cases, such a man lays the foundation of his success by taking advantage of some crisis or disaster of the capitalist system. He buys assets cheaply during the crisis period and thus emerges as a new and potent force in the next boom period. Ernest Oppenheimer came to South Africa as a diamond merchant. He was not a poor man and he had many contacts in European business circles, but he was fairly small fry. His great opportunity came with the depression of 1929-33. During those years, hundreds of thousands of South Africans of all races were unemployed. The hardship which is the permanent lot of the African worker was even further aggravated. Hunger and destitution were the order of the day for the ordinary people. The ruling classes had their troubles, too, and among these was the very low price of diamonds. Several diamond mines were closed. At one time it seemed likely that diamond mining would come to a complete standstill. Then Oppenheimer intervened. He was convinced that the diamond market would recover. Through his contacts in Europe, he borrowed money with which to buy up diamond shares, keep the mines ticking over, and stockpile diamonds. If his forecast had been wrong, he would have gone bankrupt. But his forecast was right, and as the depression lifted, there was Oppenheimer at the top of the heap. He had brought off the classic capitalist coup: he had bought up a major industry at rock-bottom prices. Gold Mines With the proceeds of his diamond venture, he bought his way into gold. He was able to secure control of about half a dozen Witwatersrand mines. That made him one of the powers in the Chamber of Mines, but by no means the chief among them. His Anglo-American group was considerably smaller than the mighty Rand Mines - Central Mining and Investment combine. The period of dominance of that group in the mining industry largely corresponds - and not by coincidence - with the period of dominance of the United Party in South African politics. Rand Mines - Central Mining was popularly known as the "Corner House group" after its Johannesburg office, which occupied a building called the Corner House. That was not, however, the group's headquarters. Its headquarters were in London. Its founding families, the Beits and Wernhers, bought their way into the British aristocracy, and were not seen again in the country from which they had extracted their fortunes. The Johannesburg boss of Corner House in the thirties and forties was John Martin - confidant of Smuts, link man between mining, politics and journalism (among the companies controlled by the Corner House was the Argus Printing and Publishing Company, owner of "The Star", "The Cape Argus" and several other leading newspapers). The role of this eminence grise, conveying the orders of a London-based mining industry to an overtly British-dominated government, fitly symbolises the pre-war set-up of imperialism in South Africa. We have been speaking of the period during which South Africa was not even a junior partner of British imperialism, but its mere possession. There has, of course, been no sharp or revolutionary break with that period, only a gradual growth of the local South African ruling class into a more senior and independent status within the imperialist camp. The political side of the story is well known. One of the key events on the economic side was another piece of foresight on the part of

Ernest Oppenheimer. Before any of his rivals, he realised the potentialities of the Free State gold-fields. He secured not just some of the best Free State sites, but almost all of them. St Helena is the only really successful Free State mine which is not an Anglo-American property, and it belongs to Union Corporation. The "Corner House" came nowhere in the Free State race and from that time (say the midforties) onwards its fate was sealed. Leading Role As the Free State mines came into production in the fifties, the Anglo-American group moved inexorably into the leading position among the South African mining houses. Now, as its name implies, the Anglo Armerican Corporation is by no means unconnected with foreign capital. In addition to its connections in Britain (e.g. through Barclays Bank) and America (e.g. through the Engelhard interests), it has many links with Western Europe (e.g. through Rothschilds, the Union Miniere du Haut Katanga and the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas). Nevertheless, Anglo-American is a South African group in a sense in which the older mining houses were not, and are not. The traditional pattern, exemplified by "Corner House", Union Corporation and others, was that the head office, board of directors and largest shareholders were all to be found in England. The Johannesburg office was manned exclusively by salaried employees. With Anglo American, the boot is on the other foot. Its London office is a mere branch office under a salaried executive sent there from Johannesburg. The board of directors, including the effective boss, Mr Harry Oppenheimer, are in Johannesburg. Therefore, while the rise of the Oppenheimers has in no way weakened the links between South African and foreign capitalism, it has led to a shift in the relative importance of the South African element. In the sixties certain events reinforced this trend. The financial position of the Oppenheimer empire was still further strengthened by the booming world demand for diamonds. Satisfying this demand from the resources of Namibia as well as those of South Africa, the Oppenheimers made colossal profits. A share in De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., could be bought in 1961 for about R.13. By 1969, that share was worth R.1 80. The Oppenheimer family owns more than a million such shares. Armed with this enormous strength, Harry Oppenheimer was able to move to the final conquest of his father's old rival, the "Corner House" group. A merger was arranged in which Oppenheimer took over Central Mining and Investment and also the British South Africa Company. Rand Mines continues to exist, with its head office at Corner House, but its independence is now only nominal. The British South Africa Company, commonly known as "the Chartered Company", was the company formed by Cecil Rhodes for the purpose of conquering "Rhodesia" It had "bought" vast tracts of land from conquered African chiefs and had become the "owner" of all mineral rights throughout Zimbabwe and Zambia. One of the first acts of independent Zambia was to terminate royalty payments to the Chartered Company on Zambian copper production. This left the Chartered Company with little further basis for a separate existence, but with considerable assets in its possession - the fruits of seventy years' bare-faced robbery of the people of Zimbabwe and Zambia. Inside South Africa, Anglo American now dwarfed all the other gold mining houses. Outside South Africa, it possessed important new resources. These were put into a new company called Charter Consolidated. This company is the most important vehicle for the expansion of the Oppenheimer empire outside Southern Africa. Its headquarters are in London, but it is wholly controlled from Johannesburg. It has substantial holdings in the Zambian copper industry. It has initiated the opening of a new copper mine in Mauritania and a potash mine in England. It has holdings in Malayan tin and substantial interests in Canada. It is engaged in prospecting in Australia, Chile and Peru. Its shares have more than doubled in value over the last four years. In Industry In South Africa, Oppenheimer has, of course, invested considerably in secondary industry. Both Anglo American Corporation and De Beers have subsidiary companies formed for this special purpose. But perhaps his most significant non- mining venture is one of comparatively small size. It is a merchant bank called Union Acceptances Ltd. This was formed with the avowed object of creating a "money market" in Johannesburg, similar to that which exists in London, New York or Frankfrut. The key role played by finance capital in imperialism was analysed by Lenin in his classic study of the subject. Of course, finance capital is no stranger to South Africa. The entire South African mining industry was dominated by it from an early stage. But in the past, South Africa was merely the stage upon which foreign finance capital played its part. The mechanisms by which finance-capital is mobilised and directed were not present in South Africa. Today they are, even if only on a relatively small scale. The scale is nevertheless sufficient to have a profound impact upon neighbouring territories. The Smith regime's resistance to sanctions owes as much to South African banking facilities as to oil supplies via South Africa. The Cabora Bassa dam is being largely financed in Johannesburg. The Cabora Bassa dam is, of course, also being built by a consortium assembled and led by the Oppenheimer interests. This is merely one example of the way in which the areas of interest to South Africa's political imperialism coincide with those in which Oppenheimer has his largest stakes outside South Africa. Namibia is a second example. This territory stolen by South Africa contributes more than half of the diamond production of the De Beers group. Swaziland is a third example (Oppenheimer exports Swazi iron ore to Japan). Botswana is a fourth example (Oppenheimer proposes to exploit Botswana's new diamond discoveries). Zambia Zambii is in a different category. Zambia ii certainly of interest to South African imperialism, but resists that imperialism. Accordingly, the position of the Oppenheimer interests is less secure in Zambia. However, Zambia has yet to deal adequately with this enemy within her own territory. The measures taken last year have broken the Oppenheimer stranglehold on Zambia's mineral resources, but they have also let the imperialists off pretty lightly. Share prices are often a more reliable guide to capitalist opinion than anything which capitalists may say. When President Kaunda announced his nationalisation measures, Zambian Anglo American shares fell to 18/- on the London Stock Exchange. Today they stand at 37/-. It is interesting to probe a little further the reasons for capitalist satisfaction with the position of Zambian Anglo American. Oppenheimer is being paid for the 51 % interest which the Zambian government is taking over. Of the money he is getting, only a part has to be re-invested in Zambia (K 7 million out of the compensation so far paid). A larger amount - K 12 million - has been allowed to be taken out of Zambia. With this money in its pocket, Zambian Anglo American has moved its headquarters to, of all places, Bermuda! In other words, this money is to become finance capital in its purest, most cosmopolitan form. It is to become an "offshore fund". That institution was not yet known when Lenin wrote, but it merely carries to their logical conclusion the trends which he identified. One of the fundamental characteristics of finance capital is that it can be sent across national frontiers in search of the highest rates of surplus value. In modern times, however, the financier has three further objectives in addition to high basic profit rates. One is freedom from taxation, the second is freedom from exchange controls, and the third is freedom from laws designed to protect the petty bourgeois "small investor" against the rapacious schemes of the big professionals. Under capitalism, wherever there is a demand someone sets out to supply it. Therefore in a number of tiny countries, corrupt minority governments, oblivious of the interests of their own peoples, have cynically set themselves the task of providing the ultimate paradise for finance capital - no taxes, no controls, no restrictions on the law of the jungle. Bermuda is one such place and in that paradise, part of the loot extracted from the people of Zambia will in future have its being. The structure of world imperialism was comparatively simple before the Second World War. Although there were always numerous international links between imperialists, it was still broadly possible to identify a number of imperialist countries, each with its own separate group of colonial countries. South Africa, with its white population playing an imperialist rather than a colonial role, never quite fitted into this picture, and that was why its system has for many years been characterised by South African Marxists as "colonialism of a special type." Categories That analysis remains correct, but the South African system is no longer as exceptional as it used to be. Modern imperialism exhibits a far more complex picture, in which one may perhaps identify five categories of countries:I the arch imperialist country : the U.S.A. 2 countries which are to some extent colonised by the U.S.A. but play a major imperialist role of their own : e.g. Britain and France. 3 countries which are to a major extent colonised but continue to play a restricted role as imperialists, e.g. Portugal. 4 countries which are the victims of neo-colonialism: e.g. most of Africa and Latin America. 5 countries which are the victims of pure, old-fashioned colonialism: e.g. Mozambique.

South Africa remains exceptional in. the extent to which the population is divided into an element which enjoys the fruits of their rise from category three to category two, while the majority of the population is held in category five. However, the mixture of imperial and colonial status within a single country is no longer exceptional. South Africa today fits snugly into the pattern of world imperialism, as an increasingly active and important partner of the imperialists, no longer merely an object of their exploitation. The open recognition of this fact is the basis of the new British government's policy towards South Africa. The people's reply must be a heightened awareness of the fact that the struggle against imperialism is one the world over. A blow struck for socialism in Japan is not merely of sentimental interest to the South African people; ft is of direct practical interest because it endangers an Oppenheimer market. A blow struck for socialism in South Africa interests Zambia not only because Zambians care about the fate of their fellow Africans, but also because it is a blow against the exploiters of Zambia.

SOUTH AFRICAN STUDENTS PROTEST Alexander Sibeko "Who dares protest? I, says the student, Though it's deemed imprudent, I dare protest." (from "Through Dark Glasses" by British trade unionist, Bill Littlewood). On Monday, May 18, 1970, over 600 White students from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits.), with a sprinkling of young lecturers and clergymen, marched on police headquarters at John Vorster Square in central Johannesburg. Their average age - about 18. They chanted "Join us! Join us!" to pedestrians and motorists. There was little banter in their ranks. They were in deadly earnest. The students were marching in protest against the continued detention of 22 Africans, including Winnie Mandela, who were re-detained after they had been found not guilty in the Supreme Court, "and all the other unknown numbers who were being detained under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act". They carried placards and banners which read: "Charge or Release", "Give Every Man a Fair Trial", "14 Have Died in Prison", "Stop Unjust Laws", "End Section 6", and separate placards bearing the names of the 22. There had been student marches before, but this one was unprecedented. The students were marching not only against the Terrorism

Act, but also in defiance of a magisterial banning order. Every marcher well knew that he or she was contravening the notorious Riotous Assemblies Act, a nasty piece of hardware in the Apartheid State's arsenal of repressive legislation. Yet undaunted by the possibility of contravening laws carrying several years imprisonment they marched on to the very lair of the police, determined to record their protest. There had been no deliberate public contravention of a banning order or law on this scale since the historic Defiance Campaign of 1952 when 8,000 ANC volunteers deliberately courted imprisonment. Now in 1970, 600 very determined Wits students were doing the same thing. The deliberate flouting of the banning order and willingness to confront the police on their own home-ground are impressive testimony to the radicalization of Wits students. Permission for the march had been granted by the Johannesburg City Council, but the march had been banned by the government at midnight on the Sunday of the day before "in the interests of law and order". On the Monday an emergency mass meeting of students was summoned at the University Great Hall, to consider what action to take in response to the'ban. There was unanimous condemnation of the government's move. That was hardly a question of debate. The Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg, the Rev. Leslie Stradling, who was on the platform, attacked the ban, as did speakers from the Wits S.R.C. A motion was duly passed condemning the ban and proposing a picket demonstration on University property. But the mood of a considerable section of students was far angrier than that. Throughout 1968-69 the radical section had shown impatience with the "one step forward, one step backward" approach of the official leadership. To them the Government's action was an affront that clearly demanded meaningful protest; protest that would really reveal their deep-seated anger and their commitment to the 22. Ignoring the platform, hundreds of students poured out of the Great Hall and began making preparations for the march; while the president of their S.R.C. pleaded with them to return and warned them that they risked prosecution. (As if they did not know!) By their action the students were placing themselves beyond the pale of support from the Progressive-Liberal Establishment. Bishop Stradling went on record as condemning them for breaking thelaw, and the Johannesburg "Sunday Times" of May 26, had this to say: "Though we had cause last week to criticise some of them for what we considered a foolhardy defiance of the ban on their protest march, it must be said..." followed by the usual hypocritical twaddle about the necessity of

"stirring public conscience". Thus the decision to march, and its opposition by so- called liberals, acted as a critical awakening among many students concerning the power structure of South African society. For these students, the Prog-Lib barrier, "good liberals oppose apartheid on moral grounds but accept the structure of the State", was cracking. In much the same way University of Cape Town students (U.C.T.) staged their sit-in against their so-called liberal University Council in August 1968, when that Council, at the insistence of the Government, revoked its decision to appoint an African lecturer, Mr Archie Mafeje, to its academic staff. Confrontation in the Square The students' procession arrived at John Vorster Square at 3 pm. A solid phalanx of police was waiting for them. Uniformed reinforcements had been called in from police stations throughout the city. According to the "Rand Daily Mail" (May 19): "Among the hundreds of policemen outside John Vorster Square were detectives of the Security Police, Murder and Robbery Squad, Fraud Squad, Criminal Staff" etc. The students pressed as close into the Square as they could, ignoring a group of rough-necks who began pelting them with rotten eggs. Traffic was held up, thick crowds of bystanders gathered, scores and scores of uniformed police came thundering down side-streets to head-off and surround the protestors. The students showed no sign of anxiety; their dignity and courage had to be seen to be believed. They reached their destination, and as the police and onlookers tensed for the confrontation, they sat down in the roadway. According to the "Rand Daily Mail": "Uniformed policemen moved into the crowd and began lifting the demonstrators and escorting them into the charge office. The students then rose simultaneously and marched into the police station singing 'We Shall Overcome'." A police Brigadier announced to the Press that "the protestors, subject to confirmation from the Attorney General, would be charged under a section of the Riotous Assemblies Act, which provides for imprisonment of up to 12 months or a fine not exceeding R.100." ("Rand Daily Mail", May 19). This was a sign of leniency. There are other sections of the Act which provide for heavier sentences. Inside Police Headquarters 357 students, including a lecturer and three priests, were systematically photographed, fingerprinted, had their names and addresses taken, and released that night on their own recognisances. After the fingerprinting the students were shown into a section of the building where they could wash their hands. Instead they smeared the ink on the walls, and this "misdeed" was only discovered by the Security Police, Murder and Robbery Squad, Fraud Squad, Criminal Staff, etc., after the students had been released. Alas it was too late to institute an enquiry. Spirits were high and the students triumphant. The President of the NUSAS (the 25,000 strong National Union of South African Students), Neville Curtis, stated: "The action of Wits students in going ahead with their march after permission had been refused by the same Minister against whose action they were protesting, was justified. On behalf of NUSAS, I call for further national student protests" ("Rand Daily Mail", May 19). The response wds immediate. Protests and solidarity actions took place at all the English-medium universities. Mass meetings were held, vigils and pickets stages, classes boycotted and pamphlets attacking the Terrorism Act distributed in public places. Permission to stage marches was sought from the relevant authorities, and refused. At the University of Cape town (with Wits the other centre of White student radicalism) a new defiance march took place. On the Tuesday following the Wits arrests a mass meeting of U.C.T. students was told by their S.R.C. that, an urgent application to march through the streets of Cape Town had been turned down by the City Council. Irate students flocked to the City Hall where an S.R.C. deputation was seeking an interview with the Town Clerk. Feelings were running high. The City Hall was overrun by the students. Fifty of them staged a sit-in in the office of the Town Clerk's secretary. A megaphone was brought inside and a meeting held in the corridors of the City Hall. After a fruitless interview with the Town Clerk the deputation retired, and the students moved on to St George's Cathedral, a favourite student site for protest demonstrations, where a poster parade was held. By now the Special Branch were in tow. There was confusion among the students as to what to do next. Certain "leaders" suggested they call it a day. According to the "Rand Daily Mail" report of May 20: "Several students demanded a march, with placards, either down Adderley Street or back to the university. This was countered by Dr Francis Wilson, U.C.T. lecturer in economics, who said they had already achieved a 'step forward'. Dr Wilson said students should now concentrate on 'prodding their elders'. For example they should ask the bar council why it was silent on the issue of the detainees. A further suggestion that protestors again split into small groups was countered by a student who yelled: 'We came to march - let's march!'. The crowd surged forward spontaneously and moved in a solid mass along Queen Victoria Street, holding their posters in the air. A student led the singing of 'We Shall Overcome', using the portable amplifier. At intervals he addressed passers-by with shouts of: 'Why are you silent?'. The procession was followed by a police van and several unmarked police cars carrying policemen in plain clothes." Within a couple of days of the Wits protest march students were debating the pros and cons of cancelling an inter-varsity rugby match with the pro-government University of Pretoria. The Left felt the debate was irrelevant since the issue of the 357 arrests was so important. The Rugby and Drum-Majorette-set were out in force. The radicals injected reality into the proceedings by staging a "guerrilla theatre". "22 of them walked blindfolded on to the platform to symbolise the plight of the 22 African detainees who were the subject of the protests" ('Rand Daily Mail', May 21). It is history now that the State in the end charged only 30 of the original' 357 Wits students, and -these on the minor charge of contravening a municipal by-law. This was a climb down by the Government and a victory for the students. It is necessary to remind ourselves of course, that White students do have a certain amount of "protection"; they are, after all, enfranchised. The Minister of Justice, Pelser, announced at about the same time (August 1970) that the case against the 22 Africans would soon be heard. Charges against 3 were dropped but an additional accused was added. When 19 of the 20 were acquitted in the Supreme Court and freed, only to be banned by the Minister, nearly 3,000 Wits students were again on the streets marching for Winnie Mandela and the others. (October 8). Whither White Students ? It is obvious that there exists a growing body of radical White students who appreciate the necessity of overcoming the strictly constitutional approach; who are refusing to tail behind the Prog-Lib Establishment. If this mood has been originally generated by a moral revulsion for apartheid, and spurred on by the example of overseas student unrest, then certainly the experience of struggle of the past two years is creating the conditions for the stirrings of fundamental political consciousness. The majority of these students were ten or eleven years old when the ANC was outlawed and when the Sharpeville massacre took place. They were not even born when the Communist Party was banned. They have grown up purely under Nationalist rule

"How is it possible to crack the monolith?". Given their privileged and limited, middle class backgrounds, one might excuse them if they answered "Impossible". Yet this is riot their answer. They have proved themselves to be ripe and receptive for the ideals of the Freedom Charter, for the policy of the ANC, and for the Marxist-Leninist theory of our Party. Ten years ago White students were indifferent to liberation propaganda. But, in August, 1970. when an ANC "leaflet bomb" was exploded on the Wits campus as part of a nationwide distribution campaign, feelings of enthusiasm ran high. Students eagerly gathered up the leaflets in order to read them. A police spy was so overcome by the audacity of the action that he exposed himself by attempting to forbid students to pick up the leaflets "in the name of the Defence Force". His efforts were brushed aside. Whither White students ? An ideological shift does not occur of its own causation. It is the effect of complex phenomena, not the least of which is found in the alignments and clashes between differing interests, forces and classes in society. This is a period of great flux in South Africa, caused by the tremendous growth in the forces of production, based on the intensifying exploitation of Black labour. Sharpening contradictions are going to "burst asunder" the old society and transform its cruel and exploitative relations of production. In our revolutionary task we do not spurn any potential allies, no matter how small. How then to liberate the radical White students from the ideology of their bourgeois class backgrounds? The study of revolutionary theory, the dissemination of revolutionary propaganda among them, is essential. But more than this is required. It is necessary to develop an organisational form which is capable of transforming revolutionary theory into practice. Where in South Africa today, with the ANC and Communist Party driven deep underground, can White students find revolutionary links? In this respect the Black students could very well come to the rescue. Enter Saso 1970 has been a significant year for Black students. The Government's policy of indoctrination and authoritarianism continues to meet firm resistance in the "tribal colleges". At Fort Hare and Turfloop the students boycotted the official government ceremonies, granting these institutions a "University" status. At the Coloured "University" of the Western Cape, 500 students took part in a march and sit-in, protesting against the suspension of a colleague who refused to wear a tie to lectures. What could well be the most important event of the year has been the emergence of SASO; the all-Black, South African Students' Organisation. Black students have shown themselves dissatisfied and disillusioned with the two main anti-government student bodies, NUSAS and UCM. (The interdenominational University Christian Movement was inaugurated in 1967, is composed of students of all races, has been criticised by the Church for its experimental and unconventional forms of worship, and was "founded on convictions which directly contradict the policies of the Nationalist Government"). Both these movements have played an important part in the upsurge of student protest, they have incurred the wrath of the Government and Afrikaner Press, fallen under the surveillance of the Special Branch, had their meetings raided and their functionaries hounded. Yet in July 1970, Black students belonging to SASO decided to withdraw from NUSAS and "go it alone". At about the same time Black members of UCM made it clear that they "question very seriously the validity of a non-racial movement and wish to withdraw into an all- black organisation". Black students insist that they are not "closing the door" on cooperation with NUSAS and UCM, since the aim of establishing a non-racial society is shared by all concerned. SASO has repeatedly stressed its intention of maintaining contact with White students. There has never before existed an all-Black national student body such as SASO. An inaugural meeting of some Black students was held at Marianhill, Natal, at the end of 1968. After much deliberation and discussion SASO was formally launched in July 1969, at Turfloop, when its constitution was adopted. The preamble to the constitution states: We the Black students of institutions of higher learning in South Africa have unique problems and aspirations; that it is necessary for Black students to consolidate their ranks if their aspirations are to be realised; that there is a crying need in South Africa for Black students to reassert their pride and group identity; adopt this constitution in the belief that unity and positive re-awakening will result among the Black students of South Africa. According to a SASO official ". . . interest has grown significantly in all Black colleges" since the 1969 Turfloop conference. "The first general council meeting was held in Durban from July 5 to 10 (1970). In all, eight Black campuses were represented and interested persons from Wits, UCT and UNISA (the University of South Africa which is run on correspondence course lines) also took part in the discussions. Two SRC's - Natal and Turfloop - and one seminary have formally affiliated to SASO. We have branches at most colleges and universities where there are no SRC's. Out of a Black student population of about 9,000 at institutions of higher learning, almost 3,000 have already affiliated to SASO". ("Rand Daily Mail", August 8, 1970.) In an exclusive interview with the "Rand Daily Mail" (August 8), twenty-one year old Mr Charles Sibisi, SASO's Vice-President, explaining the relevance of his organisation's emergence, declared: "Not only is the move taken by Black students defensible, it was a long overdue step. It seems sometimes that it is a crime for Black students to think for themselves. The idea of everything being done for Blacks is an old one and all liberals take pride in it, but once the Black students want to do things themselves, suddenly they are regarded as becoming 'militant'." Questioned on the impact of the "Black Power" movement in the United States, the Vice-President replied: "If there was no Black Power movement in America, SASO would still have been born, but the call gave us a psychological advantage and this explains the reasons for the large following we have built up in a relatively short time." Another SASO official stated to the interviewer: "What we want is not Black visibility but real Black participation. In other words, it does not help us to see several quiet Black faces in a multiracial student gathering which ultimately concentrates on what the White students believe are the needs of Black students. Because of our sheer bargaining power as an organisation, we can manage in fact to bring about a meaningful contact between the various colourgroups in the student world." (My italics - A.S.) Addressing nearly 100 delegates at their council meeting in Durban, SASO's President, Mr Barney Pityane (who has had a passport application to take up a scholarship abroad refused by the government ) eloquently declared: "Blacks are tired of standing on the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves and by themselves." Black members of UCM who share these sentiments are joining SASO. At a UCM conference held in Johannesburg in July of last year, a conference report stated: "Whites have certainly treated Blacks, in almost every sphere of life, as if they were inferior. This White superiority complex has rubbed off on virtually every White South African. It has also succeeded in giving Blacks an inferiority complex. These superior and inferior attitudes have become apparent in even the most 'liberal' multiracial organisations. This accusation can even be made to stick with UCM." About 70 Africans and 30 Whites attended the conference, and according to Stanley Uys ("The Guardian" August 14), "the UCM was accused of dampening the militancy of Blacks in South Africa and denying them the chance to nurture black consciousness." At its congress at Eston, Natal, last July, NUSAS formally abandoned its claim to represent Black students in South Africa and recognised SASO's right to do so. NUSAS President, Neville Curtis, advised the conference: "While we can keep alive our ideals we cannot claim to represent any Black students except those who choose to participate in the National Union. We must realize that the role of White students is not a primary one. A de facto White NUSAS cannot claim to represent Black students." ("The Star", July 25, 1970). The NUSAS resolution -"blamed" (sic!) apartheid for SASO's emergence, but stated: "In so far as this development works towards a just egalitarian society it constitutes a positive step in the realization of the aspirations of Black students." Black is Beautiful The pundits of the South African press have viewed developments like SASO's severance from NUSAS with alarm. They have called them "the beginning of 'Black Power' thinking in the country" (Stanley Uys, SA. correspondent for "The Guardian", August 14, 1970). Uys continued his report in this London newspaper: "Warnings that apartheid would eventually produce this black backlash have been sounded over the years by South Africans who keep themselves informed of non- white outlooks." Even before the emergence of SASO the White press experts on "non-white outlooks" were gravely attempting to analyse the implications of the move by Black medical students of the so-called "Non-European Section" of the segregated University of Natal, to rename their college "University of Natal - Black" and to refer to Whites as non-Blacks. Their answer? The spectre of "Black Power". The concept of "Black Power" has been very loosely applied to mean very many things. One of the troubles with the Messrs "Who Keep Themselves Informed of Non-White Outlooks" is that the current Western fetish for jargonising has gone to their heads, and one can never be too sure exactly what they mean. If the "Black consciousness" that SASO officials refer to is the stirrings of genuine national consciousness (and at present we have no reason to believe otherwise) then this can only result in a firmer commitment to the national liberation struggle. If the concept of "Black Power" is used to conceal a "withdrawal" from active struggle, and this has happened'with some very sectional groups in the Western Cape, then of course it must be challenged. We know very well that the Government views the "tribal colleges" as units for manufacturing bureaucrats for the bantustans. There is always the danger that those accepting such positions may seek to rationalise on the basis of a "Bantustan Power" withdrawal. There are such cases in the Transkei Cabinet. Our view of SASO will ultimately depend on its contribution to the liberation struggle. For the moment we can only warmly applaud and support the reasons for its emergence. Let us be reminded too, that SASO not only affirms its belief in the goals of non-racialism, but in practical terms is a union of all Black students; African, Indian and Coloured, with tribal and ethnic origins bearing absolutely no consequence at all. This in itself represents a decisive rebuttal of the government's policy of separate development. "The enemy fights us not only with guns but with lies about our people", declares a recent ANC leaflet illegally distributed throughout South Africa. "He tries to make us feel that black is weak, that black is inferior and that black is doomed to have a second place in our country for ever. Let us answer their lies so that every black child will know the truth; that he is strong, that he is equal and that the future of our land lies in his two hands. "Youth of our land", the leaflet continues, ...You must organise every young patriot in your school and university. You must develop a pride in every young man and woman in his blackness, in his strength and in his future . . . You are part of the people - of the people in the towns and those on the land. Organise, prepare and fight back." It is because we believe in the nobility of our people's cause that we join with our Afro-American brothers and declare: "Black IS Beautiful!" Tip of the Iceberg The angry mood of Black students is indicative of the mood of Black youth. This mood is but the tip of an iceberg. An iceberg embracing not only Black youth, but the entire Black People of South Africa. "Two Hundred Stone-Gang Girls Planned to Burn Hostel Down", was the headline in the Johannesburg "Post" of 24 May, 1970. There was no St Trinians' trivia behind that story, which the headline might imply. Outraged to boiling-point by the severe discipline and paternalism of their school, barred from raising the most minor complaint such as the foul food they were being served, prevented from even questioning the racial attitudes of their teaching staff, over two hundred schoolgirls of the Shawbury Mission School at Qumbu in the Transkei, stoned the school warden and principal, smashed 700 windows, and stoned a. huge force of riot police when the latter arrived on the scene. The girls were rounded-up and taken to Umtata in police trucks, where they were detained under Proclamation 400 of the Transkei Emergency Act, interrogated and despatched to various prisons in the territory. Outbursts of this order are very frequent at schools for Blacks. In fact two similar occurrences have taken' place at the Shawbury Mission alone: in 1964 and 1967. Black students are faced by a great challenge. They have fertile ground on which to work; at the black colleges and within the schools. They are faced with not inconsiderable problems; the isolation of the institutions of learning from one another; the screen of surveillance and authoritarianism; a ruthless government that can crack down without a moment's notice. All these obstacles must and will be overcome. Black students owe it too, to the White student radicals, to "keep the doors open". Indeed they have the important role of developing the radicalization process of these students, by posing the correct challenges for them, drawing them away from the Prog-Lib Establishment, and orientating them to the ideology of national liberation. Above all, Black students are faced by the historic task of their own involvement in the revolutionary struggle for national liberation. Their major role is to carry the spirit of struggle and action to the vast oppressed masses from whom they are inseparable. "Youth of our land", the illegal ANC leaflet declared, "you must learn the skills which will bring us victory. You must try to get a gun. You must learn to use it. You must learn to hide it properly until the time for action comes." The high road to South African freedom is the armed struggle. The youth and students must raise the banner of this struggle high.

AFRICAN WORKERS AND THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE N.MALAPO & B.NGOTYANA That African national aspirations have been a progressive and dynamic force in South Africa has long been recognised. What has not been sufficiently emphasised is that the processes of working class formation have, in the special conditions in our country, tended to enhance not so much class as national consciousness. Economic grievances that might have led to classical class struggles, including trade union action, produced instead a strong current of national feeling among Africans, giving a particular political character to their responses to the gross exploitation to which they were subjected. This is not to say that working class consciousness with a socialist perspective among African workers ought to be underestimated. On the contrary, the South African Communist Party's activities over fifty years have done much to make many Africans apply class criteria to the system. It has not been difficult to identify the white industrialist as a capitalist nor to see as a class phenomenon the special solidarity that exists between Black factory workers. Yet it is national sentiment which runs most strongly among African workers, and with ample reason. In this article we want to examine one of the factors responsible for the existence of the national dimension in the consciousness of the African working class, namely the presence of a white aristocracy of labour which is integrated into the superstructure of white supremacy. Colonial-type relationships between White and Black workers continue to be a special feature of South African society. While this has inhibited the development of the traditional type of class consciousness among working-class Africans it has certainly not led to a diminution of militancy. Furthermore, recognition of this objective aspect of the social system has enabled South African Marxists to place the demand for African liberation in the forefront of the struggle for democracy and socialism. In the last two decades the rapid expansion of the economy has been accompanied by a large intake of African workers into wage employment in the cities. At the same time there has been an increasingly sharp separation within the working class as a whole. The White workers, always a privileged section, have become even more differentiated as a managerial and supervisory aristocracy of labour. Far from breaking 'barriers down, the new economic expansion has seen the greater institutional separation of White workers from Black with more obvious colour discrimination operating in their favour. The process of differentiation is most striking at the marginal point where relatively skilled Black workers press for entry into White jobs. That skilled workers should defend their positions against pressure from below is not unusual in capitalist society. What makes the South African case exceptional is that they should depend on the state apparatus and on the rigorous doctrine of apartheid to support their privileged status. State Policy The rules for the protection of White workers were given by the Minister of Labour, Marais Viljoen, in a statement in August 1970 on the employment of Africans and other non-Whites in industry and commerce. He stipulated that White workers must not be dislodged by Non-Whites; Whites must always have protection; there must be no mixed working force in the same premises; Non- Whites must never be placed in a position of authority over Whites; there must always be White supervision; and, Non-Whites must be encouraged to take their skills to their 'own areas' where they can benefit 'their own kind'. Nevertheless, despite the organisational problems posed by these rules to management, African workers continue to pour into jobs, swelling the already large Black proletariat. The growth of wage employment in some key production sectors is given in the following breakdown:

The 1960 Census figures show that for mining, quarrying, manufacture, construction and electricity, the working force consisted of 1,044,140 Africans and 353,399 Whites. The figures for the same categories for 1969 are 1,369,000 Africans and 394,000 Whites. This represents an increase of 31% for Africans and 10% for Whites. An important subdivision of these totals is that of manufacture. Employees in manufacture 1962 1969 Increase White 208,900 266,000 27% African 357,000 556,000 55% The marked increase of African employment in industry is confirmed by the figures of the 'economically active population' published by the Government. These show that the African 'economically active population' increased by one million in the last ten years. They also show that the percentage of Africans included under this heading is similar to that of Whites or Coloureds. (This proves that there is no self-sufficient African peasantry, and that to all intents and purposes the African population is wholly integrated into the cash economy in a way quite exceptional in Africa.) The figures are worth quoting in full. Economically active persons 1960 1969 White 1,142,821 1,438,000 Coloured 551,750 692,000 Asian 125,890 157,000 African 3,877,199 4,860,000 Since the number of African, Coloured or Asian persons economically active on their own account is very small, the figures show that capitalist expansion has created a vast army of wage workers with a large proportion concentrated in the cities. It is with this section that we are concerned here. Skilled Workers Manipulate the Colour Bar How the pressures generated by this growing black working class are being contained is shown by developments in the engineering industry, always a.key indicator in a capitalist economy.

As a result of Government encouragement, the engineering industry led by the state controlled monopoly corporation ISCOR, has expanded very rapidly in the last three decades to the point where it now has some export capacity. As far as the labour force'goes this expansion has taken place in the framework of labour relations established when the industry first began as a servicing sector for the mines and early manufacture It was then manned by a high proportion of White skilled workers imported from overseas. In time, the manufacturing side became more important and African labourers were drawn in at very low rates of pay. As growth continued and more Africans were employed in the industry, the white workers organised in their race exclusive unions did their best to keep Africans out of even semiskilled work. They were only partially successful and employers gradually introduced African labour to fill jobs for which White workers were not readily available. Between 1959 and 1965 the percentage of white ,operatives dropped from 24.5% to 15.7% though the percentage of artisans remained the same. Employment in the industry as a whole in 1968 was: Whites 76,362 Coloured 15,746 Asian 3,385 African 177,522 The process was not encouraged by the Government which insisted on large scale recruiting drive overseas for skilled workers to fill the needs of industry. Most of these efforts failed miserably and the engineering bosses were forced to resort to black labour which they did with the reluctant concurrence of the white unions. The technique used was for semi-skilled and even skilled job categories to be downgraded in the industrial agreement at much lower rates of pay. Early in 1970, with the shortage of white skilled manpower becoming acute, the employers demanded the downgrading of more than 300 categories to enable Africans to be employed. This would of course also mean a considerable saving in labour costs for the employers. As a quid pro quo the white workers were offered more money, bonus fringe facilities, extra overtime pay and public holiday pay. There was also the usual undertaking that the arrangement would be temporary and that in the event of unemployment, the jobs would return to White workers at the previous rates of pay. The negotiations developed into a wrangle between the employers and the unions which lasted for months until in September it was announced that there was to be a revised Industrial Council agreement. The white workers were to get a wage increase averaging 10 per cent while the African workers (who were not represented at the negotiating table) were given increases ranging from 8 to 15 per cent. The wages of White engineering workers will in future range from 89 cents to R.1.15 an hour, depending on the grade. Those of African workers will range from 21 cents.an hour for general labourers to 41 an hour for higher grade work. But the most significant feature of the agreement was that it ignored the employers' proposals to admit non-Whites into jobs held by Whites. The resistance of the White unions, which had held up the agreement for so many months, had triumphed in the end. Job reservation was to stay. A similar process is under way in the Railways, a wholly state-owned and managed industry. When the Minister of Transport was asked in 1964 how many Africans were performing skilled work he replied that the terms 'skilled' and 'semi-skilled' applied only to artisans and trade hands who were 'exclusively White'. Indeed, in that year of 96,459 Africans employed by the Railways & Harbours only 840, less than one per cent were paid more than R.2 a day. (E1 = R1.71). Nevertheless a training centre was opened in 1958 and to date some 30,000 Africans have been trained in a wide variety of semi-skilled occupations such as maintenance work, barrier attendants, head gangmen and booking clerks - work formerly regarded as "white". All this has thrown the White Rail unions into some confusion. The old yardstick of the 'rate for the job' which for so long was.enough to protect them is now inadequate. They depend instead on various artificial forms of job reservation as the main mechanism for maintaining white privilege. In May 1970 the Government and the white unions engaged in long discussions over the proposed breach of many colour-protected categoories. In the end the 20,000 strong Artisan Staff Association agreed to the proposals in return for wage increases of up to 24%. Needless to say, the jobs were downgraded and filled at much lower rates of pay. In the building industry too, a new class of Non-White building operator was created with the agreement of the White unions in February 1966. This was extended and enlarged in scope in September 1968 and May 1969, each time with some new benefit fqr the White workers. Vacancies have been filled by Africans with considerable savings for the employers.

State Intervention While private employers and even some Government departments grapple with the White unions for the opening up of jobs for Africans, the Government has willingly undertaken to preserve the best jobs for Whites by means of legally binding job reservation Determinations. These Determinations which usually arise at the instigation of the White unions are most often applied to certain specific job categories in particular areas. Since the supply of White labour is often uncertain, employers are granted exemptions to employ non-White labour temporarily where necessary. But even these legal guarantees are insufficient for the White unions. Recently the President of the Trade Union Council, Mr L. C. Scheepers, spoke hypocritically about the Government's alleged indifference to African infiltration into White jobs. He said: "This situation can never be reversed. It can only become more widespread until it reaches a stage where employers will be confronted with a wide choice of semiskilled and skilled African workers at far lower Wages than would have to be paid for Whites." ("Rand Daily Mail" 29/4/70). His solution was the strict observance of the rate for the job. Miss Anna Scheepers, President of the Garment Workers' Union and once a real militant, is now reduced to cringing for Government protection. While posing as an opponent of job reservation it was nevertheless as a result of her union's pressure that Determination No.8 of 1960 laid down that new employers in the Transvaal would have to employ 25% Whites. No White machinist could be replaced by a Coloured worker and the jobs of supervisor, foreman and chopper- out were reserved for Whites. However, the 25% quota could not be filled and exemptions were granted liberally so that whereas in 1949 over 50% of employees in the Transvaal were White, by 1965 only 12% were White while over 50% were African. Job reservation Determinations have been made for many other industries. For some reason the job of motor driving is one in which White workers seek this kind of legal protection. Numerous Determinations have been made for categories like heavy lorries in the Free State goldfields, earth moving machines in the Orange Free State, Divisional Council lorries in the Eastern Cape and petroleum carriers in Durban. In almost every case these Determinations arose out of appeals from some local branch of a White union. Where a shortage of White workers develops, the Determination is waived by agreement with the union with the proviso that their members get paid above the rates laid down in the agreement. On no account may Africans receive the same pay as Whites doing the same work. Similarly in the motor vehicle assembly industry the reactionary unions complained of Non-White encroachment and the government stepped in with Determination No.16 in 1964. There were then some 13,000 workers in the industry of whom 52% were white, 27% Coloured and 21 % African. In September 1969, the 17,000 strong all-White Motor Industry Employees' union ordered all its motor mechanics to refuse to instruct non-White apprentices. Subsequently it agreed that existing contracts would be honoured so that apprentices could complete their training. In the government postal services, a shortage of white workers has been a pressing problem for some time. In 1964 there were 978 vacancies out of a total requirement of 2,835. Every method to relieve the shortage was resorted to: recruiting overseas, employing white married women, making use of school children on a part-time basis after school hours. But finally Non-Whites had to be engaged. The government's reluctance to give these jobs to Non-Whites was due ta its desire to keep Non-Whites out of White areas particularly in occupations where contact across the colour line might result. Domestic workers are of course present in every White household but apartheid apologists prefer, in the main, to be silent about this. The widening Wage Gap The determination of the White unions to limit African advance into better jobs is one of the biggest factors in the exacerbation of race antagonisms. Too often it seems that even the employers, pursuing their own economic interests, would ease colour restrictions on the factory floor if it were not for the very substantial power of the organised white aristocracy of labour. The situation is made worse by the clearly widening gap between Black and White wages. In 1945/6 the ratio of White to African wages in private industry was 100 : 26. By 1957 the ratio was 100 : 18. Statistics for 1970 include electricity, construction and mining, in addition to private industry, with the result that the 1970 ratio drops to 100 : 12. A recent article in the "S.A. Financial Mail" confirmed that the number of Africans employed in mining and industry is increasing faster than the number of Whites. It also showed that the wage gap was steadily increasing. The article gave the following table based on information issued by the Department of Statistics in Pretoria. The figures compare data for April 1 1970 and 1969. MINING MANUFACTURING CONSTRUCTION No.of % rise No. of % rise No. of % rise Total 610,433 5.1 1,086,200 6.6 305,030 13.4 Whites 61,153 2.4 276,470 4.1 54,266 8.5 Africans 544,318 5.2 571,130 7.0 207,100 15.1 MONTHLY WAGES & % RISE Whites R.350 11.2 R.288.20 10.1 R.305 14 Africans R.18.18 7.5 R.50.87 11.1 R.48.80 6.8 Faced with such overwhelming discrimination at work, where it hurts most, it is not surprising that African workers find little common cause with the White workers. The figures show that a White miner earns 19 times as much as a Black miner, a White worker in manufacturing industry over 5 times as much as a Black worker, and a WhIite worker in the construction industry over 6 times as much as a Black worker. The figures given above indicate that in almost every sector of the economy African workers are in the majority, sometimes, as in mining overwhelmingly so. The question must therefore arise: how is it that the minority is able to maintain such a firm grip on their privileges? The answer is that the White workers are wholly integrated into the white power superstructure and use every means available to pressurise the Government a~ld employers. The Africans, in consequence, are harassed by the full weight of the state machine. Much has already been written about the effect of the pass laws, of police intimidation and of other means to hamper African workers in their efforts to organise. What has not been sufficiently dealt with is the effect of the migratory labour system on African bargaining power and, for that matter, on their subjective political responses to their condition. Information on the scale of migration is scant, and Government statistics are wholly inadequate for a thorough analysis. Nevertheless, a few important points can be made here.

There can be no doubt that the number of African workers in South Africa's cities is grawing rapidly and that many are permanent city dwellers. Figures given in Parliament in 1969 revealed that of the total population of the Transkei, which was given as 2,841,000 some 1,579,000 were said to be within the region, while 1,029,000 were outside, presumably working in industry and agriculture. Of these 233,000 or 22% were said to be migratory. A researcher with access to Government files has found that 40% to 50% of Africans over 16 years of age in the urban areas (and they are presumably mainly workers) were born in these urban areas. (Dr R. H. Coertzee in a paper "City and Homeland liaison in Urban Bantu Administration".) On the other hand the proportion of city workers who are migratory is still very large. In 1969 the Deputy Minister of the Bantu Administration Department said that of all Africans employed in the so-called 'white areas', 1,664,000 were contract workers, that is migratory. The effects of the migratory labour system are multiple. It provides Government, employers and the reactionary white unions with an excuse for keeping wages down, withholding training for skilled work and denying the right to organise. It destroys family life, and creates a strong sense of impermanence and insecurity amongst its victihis. On the other hand the migratory labour system has had the effect of turning every African peasant into an urban proletarian, leading to a recognition of the identity of interest of the overwhelming majority of the oppressed African people in both town and country. It has been one of the major factors in developing the intensity of African national consciousness which has become the principal expression of revolt. The refusal of the White ruling group as a whole to recognise the legitimate rights of Africans as workers and citizens, and the rigidity of the superstructure which they have created to buttress their privilege, give the struggle for freedom its unique character in South Africa. It is because the colour bar is maintained as the most inflexible barrier to African advancement that the realisation has been reached that there is no peaceful way out of the impasse and that only a violent revolution can break down the bastions of White power and privilege and open the way to the satisfaction of the class and national demands of South Africa's Black workers.

AFRICA: Notes and Comments UGANDA: THE COMMON MAN'S CHARTER - AN ESSAY IN PRAGMATISM On May Day, 1970, Uganda's President Milton Obote announced measures of nationalisation of foreign firms, including banks. Sixty percent of the assets of these firms, he told the nation in what has come to be known.as the 'Nakivubo Pronouncement', would be taken over by government. In the event, the process was not quite so simple; the question of compensation payable has been the subject of careful formulation and reformulation; and in so far as the establishment of a merchant bank to deal specifically with foreign capital investment in Uganda is concerned, the shareholding has become forty percent to government, sixty percent to National and Grindleys Bank of London Pragmatic considerations, it would seem, lead; socialist theorising follows. The nationalisation measures followed earlier decisions of the ruling Uganda Peoples Congress. In June 1968, the UPC annual conference called for far- reaching measures of reform and reconstruction of the economy; and in October 1969, President Obote presented the annual conference with some detailed proposals for implementing the earlier decision of principle. His presentation was titled "Charter of the Common Man. First Steps for Uganda to Move to the Left". "The heart of the Move to the Left can be simply stated. It is both political and economic. It is the basic belief... that political power must be vested in the majority of the people and not the minority; . . . that economic power should be vested in the majority and not in the minority as is the case at present." This summary is founded on a simple, practical appraisal of Uganda's past reality. "Less than ten years ago the most prominent and explosive political issues . . . had in reality, and in practical terms, nothing to do with the people as such. The issues were 'The form of government suitable for an independent Uganda' and 'Who was to be the head of state on the achievement of independence?' These issues were made to appear as of national importance, not because when solutions were found they would advance the lot of the common man, but because the feudalists, on account of their hold on the people, saw independence as a threat to their then privileged positions, and sought to make these positions synonymous with the interests of the common man. "It cannot be denied that the then privileged positions of the feudalists were a barrier to the full and effective participation of the common man in the government of independent Uganda. The feudalists wanted to continue to rule as they used to before the coming of the British..." Against this class aim of the feudal elements, 'the UPC advanced the concepts of a republican and democratic state, which not only opens up participation in government to the common man, but which would unite the people into a single nation against the tribal and clan divisions which feudal elements foster and seek to perpetuate. The Charter warns against the emergence of a new elite, which mnight take over where the feudalists left off.

"We identify two circumstances in which the emergence of a privileged class can find comfort and growth. First our education system, which aims at producing citizens whose attitude to the uneducated and to their way of life leads them to think of themselves as the masters and the uneducated as their servants. Secondly, the opportunities for self-employment" in modern commerce and industry and to gain employment in Government and other sectors of the economy are mainly open to the educated few. .... These circumstances could lead to actual situations of corruption, nepotism and abuse of responsibility." How then are these problems to be dealt with? The charter states its conviction that the major aim of government must be to raise the standard of living of the common man, and that accordingly the government must "place great emphasis on a fast rate of growth of the economy and national income." But it is fully aware that the overall rate of growth can rise without affecting the living standards of large sections of the population. On the question of distribution of the national income, the charter notes: "if no new strategy is adopted now, inequalities in the distribution of income will change dramatically the status of millions of our people, and might result in our having two nations - one fabulously rich and living on the sweat of the other, and the other living in abject poverty - both living in one country. In such a situation, political power will be in the hands of the rich, and the maximum the Government will do for the poor will be paternalism, where the lot of the masses will be not only to serve the well-to-do, but to be thankful on their knees when the opportunity arises to eat the crumbs from the high table." Unequal incomes hold back real development of resources and instead the economy becomes dependent on the exports of primary commodities in order to pay for imports of luxurious goods for the rich." On the other hand, redistribution of incomes which give greater purchasing power to the masses. would give impetus to local industries producing simple goods for mass consumption. How then to carry out these reforms? Firstly, beyond doubt, economic power, like political must be vested in the majority, not in the hands of ninority private proprietors. Secondly? But here the essay in pragmatism enters the realm of vagueness. There is an acknowledgement, imprecise and without details, that "The Move to the Left" must seek to diversify the economy and end the heavy dependence on two main export crops, "through collective ownership, viz. Go- operatives and State enterprises." But there are no details of how this is to be done.

There is recognition, too, that a country cannot depend on foreign. capital for its development ". . . because this, apart from being unpredictable, is subject to variation ty various tactors and has always got strings attached to it." This leads to a proposal to channel the savings of the citizens into a central fund which will be available to finance development. There is a reference to "compulsory savings in a number of schemes" and to the establishment of a Co-operative Bank "to cater solely for the peasants who are members of the Co-operative Unions," and who cannot obtain credits through other banking channels. "In Our Move to the Left Strategy" the charter concludes, "we affirm that the guiding economic principle will be that the means of production and distribution must be in the hands of the people as a whole . . ." The spirit is clear, the intentions honourable and radical. But not even the UPC's closest friends would claim that this is a scientific blueprint for socialism. It is born of pragmatism, without socialist theorv. Many of its ideas, outlooks and critiques of capitalist society it has acquired (deliberately? or without being aware of it?) from the ideology of modern socialism and from Marxism. But has Ugandan socialism borrowed enough? Can idealistic charting of the way forward succeed in the face of challenge both from the established and ruthless world of imperialism outside, and from the class forces of private ownership which are being born anew inside? The charter calls for "government by discussion", for commitment of the leadership and involvement of the masses, "and hard work by all". But who is to lead, inspire and guide the work, who is to carry the message to the masses, and organise and exhort them to work for its fulfilment? Perhaps here, more than anywhere, lies the unspoken weakness of the Charter - that it fails to see that it is not just principles or hard work that decides the future. There is a need, too for the instrument of a leading party to ensure the triumph of the cause. In the U.S.S.R. they summarise it: "Once the correct policy has been decided, organisation decides everything". Perhaps the U.P.C. can become such a leading force. But there is little recognition in the Charter that this is the role it is called to play, no indication of how it can be done or even why it is necessary. In carrying through a social revolution, pragmatism is not enough. There must be not only a theory but also a weapon - and use should be made of the experience of many years of bitter venturing and experimentation by others.

MOROCCO: KING HASSAN HANGS ON The steady, at times spectacular, growth of socialism and revolutionary politics in the Arab countries of North Africa is making life more and more precarious for King Hassan and the reactionary group of courtiers which runs his police state for him. Over recent years, the king has been driven to depend more and more on his imperialist allies - most notably France - and to resort to cheating and political thuggery to contain the growing popular reaction to his rule. Despite the theocratic claims of his regime, bestowing on him the title of "commander of the faithful", mass pressure has compelled him to grant temporary concessions to democratic sentiment and, where he was not prepared to relinquish control, to try to intimidate his opponents by mass arrests and even (as in the Ben Barka affair) assassination. But the denocratic reforms have been as easily taken away: from 1965 until July 1970, Morocco laboured under a state of emergency, in which dictatorial powers were assumed by the King (largely exercised by his Minister of the Interior, General Mohamed Oufkir, who was involved with the murder of Moroccan patriot Mehdi Ben Barka after the latter's kidnapping by Moroccan secret service agents in Paris in 1967). The 1962 constitution, which the state of emergency destroyed, had been a really substantial democratic advance: the king was seen in the constitution as a titular head of state, a constitutional monarch such as the British or Belgian monarchs. The emergency, which the noted French political scientist Maurice Duverger has called "totalitarian monarchic rule", has now been ended, and a new constitution adopted, which on close reading smashes the democratic facade that Hassan has laboured to erect to hide the activities of his fascist agents. Not only is the king's constitutional power boosted to such an extent as to make Parliament a puppet talking shop, but the elected representatives themselves are completely vulnerable to the police: parliamentary immunity may be lifted if a member goes so far as to say anything "where the opinions expressed represent an attack on the monarchist regime, the Moslem faith, or constitute a violation of the respect due to the king." In similar vein, the constitution prohibits "any debate" at all, whether in Parliament, in the press, or among members of the public, of any royal pronouncement. Predictably and laughably, the new constitution was said by the regime to have been approved by 98.7% of the electors. It is strange that the king's government had the gall to announce these "results" of the referendum on the constitution, and the later "election" of monarchist stooges to more than two-thirds of the parliamentary seats, despite .the fact that the main political parties, including the Communists, the Istiqlal and the National Union of Popular Forces had boycotted the polls! But in the end, of course, all this desperate manoeuvring will not save Hassan's regime. The fall of King Idris in Libya has been only the most recent sign that nothing can stand in the path of the great resurgence of Arab liberation. Hassan has only one other example of a reigning African monarch - Haile Selassie - to look to for comfort, and there is a good chance that the Moroccan monarchy will not even last as long as the ageing Lion of Judah.

SUDAN : PLANNING FOR SOCIALISM The Revolutionary Government of the Sudan in June 1970 published its plans for the economic development of the Democratic Republic over the next five years - a Five-Year Plan which is explicitly linked with Sudan's choice of the "Socialist way of development". As the plan itself shows, however, the Government is seriously hampered as is any government of a poor country - by the imbalances and inadequacies of its economy induced by dependence on the international economic system of the capitalist world. In these circumstances, the first steps in socialist planning which the Sudan is now taking are more oriented towards correcting the grossest distortions in the economy than towards building a socialist society. The Government plans to raise the growth of the economy from the average annual rate of 4.7% in the last five years to 8.1% in the five years to come, while at the same time directing a greater proportion of national resources into capital investment (up 45%) rather than recurrent expenditure. The Sudanese planners feel unable, at present, to undertake a major state takeover of the economy, but the role of the public sector in economic development is nevertheless to be greatly increased. It is planned that the state will take the major share of the import-export trade (hitherto almost entirely in the hands of domestic and foreign capitalists), that state commodity 'monopolies will be created, and that Government will take the lead in capital investment - 56% of total investment against the private sector's 44% At the same time, the growing role of the state in guiding national development strategy provides the opportunity for the more systematic development of the Sudan's resources. In the past, for example, the considerable deposits of valuable minerals (iron, manganese, chromite, for instance) have not been systematically mined, and indications of further deposits of other minerals have not been properly followed up, in the main because the prospecting and exploitation of deposits was left to domestic and foreign private interests. There is now to be a nationally planned geological survey, and the Government itself is to establish iron extractive facilities. A second major problem was that, in previous years, industrial capacity was not fully utilised - enterprises, characteristically, ran at only two-thirds to three- quarters of their productive capacity, even when they were publicly owned. The new efficiency and spirit in Government, it is hoped, will ensure that factories and other organizations give the fullest possible benefit to the people. Finally, in the crucial area of development financing, the Government is to break decisively with the past. In the last five years, actual implementation of development investment projects averaged only two-thirds of the amount planned for. In some cases, this was due to sheer inefficiency; in the majority, however, projects could not be got off the ground because the planners had paid little heed to ensuring that adequate finance was available before projects were planned. Financing difficulties arose from the fact that internal resources were low and expenditure high and, further, that almost three-quarters of all investment finance took the form *of foreign loans - a notoriously unreliable source of development money. The new regime plans to reduce sharply dependence on imperialist loans, and to increase the internal investment capacity of the economy by, among other things, more than doubling the rate of tax on capitalist business profits. At the same time, the international position of the Sudan will be improved, and its trade deficit eliminated by protection of infant Sudanese consumer industries, greater control over foreign trade, and a new emphasis on mutually \advantageous trade with Socialist and other friendly countries, to the detriment of the imperalist power. There can be no doubting the good intentions of the new Five-Year Plan: indeed, if it succeeds in its aims, it will lay a sound basis for the implementation of more radical socialist measures in the future. Doubts centre rather on the endemic problems of all poor countries which are perforce vulnerable to exploitation by the major capitalist powers - about whether a dependent economy can accumulate a meaningful economic surplus for socialist development without effecting a decisive (and in the short run arduous) break with the imperialist world system; about whether reliance on traditional measures of agricultural improvement combined with technological inputs are sufficient to transform rural production and so produce funds for substantial economic growth; about whether the administrative and political capacity exists to exert effective control over the economic planning process. Above all there is a need for political unity. At the time of going to press it was reported that the Government of the Sudan had arrested the general secretary of the Communist Party, Abdel-Khalek Mahgoub, and dismissed a number of members of the Revolutionary Council suspected of "communist sympathies". If these reports are correct, it is not a very good augury...... --...... from the Marxist classics... It would be a mistake to think that the revolutionary classes are invariably strong enough to effect a revolution whenever such a revolution has fully matured by virtue of the conditions of social and economic development... A revolution may be ripe, and yet the forces of its revolutionary creators may prove insufficient'to carry it out, in which case society decays, and this process of decay sometimes drags on for decades." V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 9, pp. 368-69. - .;.;-.;;:::. . .;;:.: '-...--.:. .. ..-....."...:...... -..:...... -

TANZANIA : MASSES ACCLAIM NYERERE The voters of Tanzania have overwhelmingly endorsed the leadership of President Nyerere and Tanu (the Tanzania African National Union, the sole political party in the country) in the national elections held at the end of October. In a 72% poll, 3,465,573 electors voted for the President, against only 109,828 who voted "no". At the same time, Parliamentary elections confirmed the trend of electoral confidence in the Tanzanian leadership: in contrast to the elections of 1965, there were few defeats of Ministers or other prominent politicians. The electoral system, which is unique, provides for the voters to choose between two candidates - both members of Tanu - chosen in preliminary procedures. Both candidates are accorded exactly the same facilities by the party, so that personal wealth cannot buy political advantage. The Tanzanians do not feel, however, that electoral politics and formal, Parliamentary, political leadership is all-important. As the Government newspaper, The Standard, commented on the election results:

". ... leadership must be a collective ranging from the smallest village to the innermost deliberations of the Cabinet. "Leaders at all stages of our society merely act as a bridge between the people and the Government. The leader must know what the people think and want. If the people's desires are not transmitted from the lowest level, decisions taken at later stages may well be based on false premises." It is this concern with popular democracy, with finding ways to mobilise the population in the drive for socialism and an escape from poverty which was the aim of the Arusha Declaration, that underlies the debate in Tanzania about the role and character of Tanu. A number of voices have been raised in favour of transforming Tanu into a "vanguard party" of the Marxist-Leninist type, in order to achieve a higher level of political commitment and ideological development among party cadres. So far, however, President Nyerere has resisted these pressures, and indeed in his commentary on the election emphasised that Tanu should remain a mass party of peasants and workers. He gave a hint of possible future developments in the party's structure, however, in intimating that there was a necessity for a vanguard element within the party, even though the party as a whole must retain its mass base. If this idea - which appears to be only an idea at the moment - is taken up and developed by the Tanzanian socialists, the country's reputation for political creativity maywell be re-emphasised.

CHD ee Ara GUERRILLA WAR IN CHAD : FRANCE'S REAL INTERESTS It is going on two years since French paratroopers invaded the Republic of Chad to prop up the tottering and incompetent regime of President Francois Tombalbaye, gravely threatened by the rebels of the Frolina (National Liberation Front of Chad). Frolina forces, initially operating from the northern half of this huge but sparselypopulated country (3.5 million people, twice the area of France) had by early 1969 swept down dangerously close to the capital, threatening the real base of Tombalbaye's power. Despite the French intervention, which has by now cost something like $100 million, the rebellion, which Tombalbaye and his masters refer to as "banditry' has not been crushed. The rebels appear to be growing in strength and military sophistication - early in October, for example, eleven French paratroopers and some fourteen Chad Army soldiers were killed in a guerrilla ambush in the Borkou region of Northern Chad, an action which laid bare the lie that the French Army was involved in a small "mopping-up" operation. In fact, the French are becoming more and more involved, and increasingly their military tactics are taking the form of wholesale terror and anti- civilian repression. Thus, for example, the fascist French Foreign Legion, which earned itself enduring infamy in Vietnam and Algeria, has been "resurrected", and is engaged not only in trying to find guerrillas but in the killing of livestock, poisoning of wells and destruction of palm groves - tactics which in many cases can spell slow death to the nomadic tribesmen of the arid North of the republic. French teams of "administrative reform experts", including diehard ex-colonial officials, have been drafted into Chad to stiffen the apparatus of repression - not surprisingly, since Tombalbaye s own colleagues, in some cases, have turned to support the rebels against their stooge President. The signs are that the Frolina rebellion, which initially had strong elements of tribal and religious grievance, is rapidly developing the political awareness of an authentic national movement under the combined onslaught of the Chad reactionaries and French imperialism. Chad is an extremely poor country for France to expend so much money and blood on: slowly, however, France's real interests are beginning to emerge. The truth is that, in Chad, France has major strategic, political and economic prizes at stake. Firstly, virtually all of the formerly French West and Equatorial African countries have "defence agreements" with the Paris government which allow for French military assistance in suppressing internal revolt. One such agreement was invoked a few years ago, when the regime of the late Leon Mba in Gabon called in French assistance to put down rebellion. To keep these sell-out regimes from going to another imperialist bidder - and the United States has latterly been courting several of them, including the rich Ivory Coast - it is essential that France shows that is is prepared to keep them in power by any means necessary. Secondly, Chad is seen by French strategists as an essential "buffer" between the West African states dominated by French imperialism and the new revolutionary regimes of Libya and the Sudan. Many West African states have strong cultural ties - through Islam - with the Arab countries, and the French fear the spread of political influence and progressive ideas from the newly-liberated Muslim countries to the north and east of France's African empire. Thirdly, there is the even more immediate problem of Chad's western neighbour, the Republic of Niger, in which France's economic and strategic interests are heavily engaged. Why? Because recently Niger has been discovered to have very large deposits of high-grade uranium ore, which France has plans to extract. Substantial distur- bance in Chad, or, worse still, a progressive government in that country, might make much more difficult the peaceful robbery of Niger's natural resources. It is extraordinary that a relatively small number of so-called "bandits" in a faraway country can so threaten the interests of a powerful imperialist country - and in that fact there is also a heartening lesson for anti-imperialists everywhere.

WHY I JOINED THE COMMUNIST PARTY J. J. Jabulani It is no easy thing to recall the events, the situations, which contributed to my joining the world army of communists, in our case, the South Africa contingent. I think I can say with a fair degree of truth that the two most important factors were the growing awareness of the terrible plight of our people in South Africa, and the great example of what was possible that we gleaned from materials that filtered through about the heroic example of the achievements of the Soviet people and the other peoples in the Socialist countries. Many people who will read this I suppose have some knowledge of the countryside, especially in the colonial and ex-colonial countries. Therefore, many of the things I shall say they will know of. Nonetheless I must say these things because to some extent the countryside contributed to my education. In my adulthood I still retain a fondness of the countryside. In our part of the world, there are certain times of the year which remain long in one's memory. The rains come in October and November. The rural folk then take out their ploughs to prepare the soil for planting. Throughout the winter the soil is dry and dusty. When the cattle have been through the fields eating the abandoned maize stocks, what is left looks like dustbowls. This season I never liked, though in fact this is when we ate best and most regularly. But being young, I felt the irritation of the dust blowing into my face. And then the wind also carried dried leaves from the maize stalks. They whistle when they travel in the air, but not loud enough for you to hear them from a distance. So they come whistling and slap you -n the face 'and legs. The skin dries up and these missiles cut it. On a cold day you kick against a stone and cut a toe, and all you can do is to curse and beat the luckless stone. But the ploughing season was good. It is spring. It is already warm. The sun is beginning to rise early. And then! In the early dawn the air fills with the labours of the common people. There are the whistling sounds made by the wheels on the ox-drawn ploughs. The still, quiet air fills with them. There is an occasional crack of the whip and the shouting voice of the driver of the span. Hardly an hour later, the birds join with their songs and then the children. All the while it is quiet, and than at an hour, which I do not know, the silence is broken by the bellow of the cow. The fields have turned dark. No more the dust and the wind. And the rain you wash in. Stand naked in the rain, in the good downpour and you will grow as tall as your father. We believed that and welcomed the rain. The time passes and you are in autumn. The grass is still green. And now the evenings are best. There is already a chill in the air, especially in the valleys. So we sit around the fires in front of the homestead. From here you can see the smoke, as if drawn by something, slowly drifting down into the valley. Each home will contribute its share to that mist which is filling the valley. The bird- song dies out first and then the voices of the children. There is yet a fire which you can see in the distance. We shall sleep peacefully tonight because now there is hardly any work to be done in the fields. But then I left the countryside and went to live in a town. And here no longer the birds, no longer the silence. At that time there were tinshacks here. Very cold in winter, very hot in summer. The streets were unpaved and untarred. Coming in across the open veld, as you came closer, the smell of rot and filth begins to overcome you. You come anyway and in a short while you forget the smell. The greater care goes to the successful negotiation of the puddles of dirty water all the way down the street, the little children's stools dotted over the road, as mines in a minefield. Here poverty stares you in the face. The filthy, tattered clothes, the tin shacks, patched with pieces of cardboard and abandoned rags and sacks. Nobody knows you here. My parents, yes of course. But here no miner comes back from Johannesburg carrying sweets to be shared out equally among all the children of the village. Of course we began to see that we must take something from the white people. Some of their wealth; some of their clothes and food; somethingfor the condition of our people is intolerable. It was exciting to live through the Defiance Campaign of 1952. I had never seen so many people congregated together. So I went also. The man said he wanted people to go to jail. We had to show the white man that we were not afraid of his jails. We had to take the land which was raped from our forefathers while they were in darkness. We had to have freedom in our lifetime. We had to have volunteers to go to jail and half-a-crown from each person for Congress funds. The man said he will not take my half-a-crown because I am too young. As for going to jail, I should wait because I should later have to take the position of my father if the white man was still refusing to give us freedom in our lifetime. At that time I knew a girl who was not much older than we were. I think I must have loved her. Then I did not see her for many years. And then I saw her again where these tin shacks had been. She had a baby who was in rags and crying all the time. She was in rags also but said that she could not cry any more. She lived in a brick house now. Very cold in winter, very hot in summer. What had happened to her had happened, she.said. No, she does not 3eed any money. The father of the child will come home and bring whatever was necessary. I went back to the countryside in the winter. It was then that I saw the miner who had come back from the mines carrying pthisis. He was thin and bent. I had known him when I was younger. He coughed terribly. He had brought no sweets for the children. In fact the children were afraid of him. He was so quiet, moved so slowly. His eyes were very big and bloodshot. The children said that he had been bewitched because he had once stolen something from somebody. What it was that he had stolen, and from whom, they did not care to know. The food from the fields was beginning to run out. Still the grain was being sold to the white shopkeepers, for paraffin, sugar, salt, tea and tax. Soon nothing will be left, except what the father can send from the mines where he may get pthisis as well. And then the collecting of the weeds, if the winter has not yet dried them up. They will also serve as food. Then the building up of the debt with the white shopkeeper, to provide children with mealie-meal, a sixpenny packet of sugar, a tickey's worth of paraffin and maybe some sweets. The fresh open air of the countryside, the quiet, the song of the birds, I saw then, hides in those solid-looking mud huts, destitution.

There is ignorance here, too. In our area, I have still not seen a meeting attended by the thousands that I saw in the town. That year, the young people in the countryside were singing a song: The tronk, the jail, we are not afraid of jail. By then of course I was old enough to see what life was, what it meant to me and the masses of the people. At school I joined the local branch of the ANC Youth League. We all were searching f3r a way out. We spoke of the Defiance Campaign, and whether it had achieved anything. But many things were happening. Ghana became independent. Before that I think we knew Ghana as the country from which Aggrey un-Africa had come. But now a new world had emerged. Then there was Egypt, which we took as our own, our native land. And when Egypt said the Suez is ours, we also said the Suez is ours. And then Soviet Russia stood up in defence of the threatened African motherland, and Egypt and us were victorious. I think that is when we started at school discussing what this 'Russian bear' which the papers talked about was. The branch chairman had to answer many questions. Impatiently we waited to enter the higher classes when we would be taught about the French Revolution, the American Revolution and the Russian Revolution. It was after this I think that I also started to try to answer for myself the question, what is Russia? We all began to disaover many things about Russia. We knew that in Russia they stuck newspapers on walls so that those who could not buy them could also read them. We also knew that in Russia a mother was given a holiday to have her baby and received assistance from the government. We knew that in Russia the peasants have cooperatives in which they work together, taking all decisions together in their own meetings. We began to memorise the words: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Study, assistance from other communists - of course I did not know then that they were communists - seemed to answer all the questions that had been posed in our youth. When I was asked if I would like to join the South African Communist Party, I felt that an honour had been bestowed on me. Now I know that it is an honour which can only be upheld by a selfless dedication to the cause of the oppressed and exploited peoples, by working without expectation of honours for the liberation of our people and. other peoples throughout the world from the yoke of oppression and capital.

HOW THE PARTY WAS FORMED 50 Years of the Communist Party A. Lerumo The Communist Party of South Africa was formally established on July 30, 1921 as a section of the Communist International. But its origins reach much further back into South African history. Working class, socialist and Marxist thinking and organisation made their appearance in the four British colonies that made up the Union (now the Republic) of South Africa well before they were merged into a single state in 1910. In the Cape Colony, the African People's Organisation, formed in 1902 as a national liberation movement predominantly of the Coloured people, showed strong socialist tendencies expressed in its earlier years by its long-time President and leader Dr Abdurahman. Trade Union leaders, like their British counterparts, were engaged in moves to express the workers' aspirations in the political as well as the industrial field. One of the earliest Marxist influences was the famous South African novelist, Olive Schreiner (1855-1920). As a young girl she had travelled to England with the manuscript of her novel, The Story of an African Farm. There she entered the most advanced circles of the day, becoming an intimate friend of Eleanor Marx and the Marx family. Ardent fighter against imperialism - especially as expressed by Cecil Rhodes, the millionaire adventurer whose sinister shadow looms over so much of South African history - she was a tireless advocate of the rights of women 'and of the non-white people. She wrote of Karl Marx as a man of 'transcendant mental ability' and later of Lenin as 'the greatest, if not the only genius of the twentieth century'. In 1902 a branch of the British Social Democratic Federation was established in the Cape: it held a meeting of solidarity with the 1905 Russian Revolution, to which Olive Schreiner sent a message: 'We are witnessing the beginning of the greatest event that has taken place in the history of humanity during the last centuries'. First Strikes The 3pening of the Kimberley diamond fields, and even more of the Witwatersrand goldfields had transferred the arena of economic development and class struggles decisively to the North. As early as 1882 African workers on the Kimberley mines went on strike for higher wages. Thousands of immigrants from Britain and other parts of Europe' were drawn to the mines. The Transvaal miners were engaged in prolonged and bitter strikes against the international financiers seeking to exact maximum profits from the new El Dorado. It was principally these workers who formed the driving force behind the emergence of the South African Labour Party in 1909, the first political party to be organised on an all South African scale. At its foundation congress, the new Party declared a socialist objective: 'the socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange to be controlled by a democratic state in the interests of the whole community.' The Labour Party affiliated to the Second International and accepted its principles in theory. But in practice it was composed only of white workers. It was established primarily to take part in parliamentary politics, and that meant an appeal to what was, in terms of the new Union constitution adopted by the British parliament, an almost exclusively white electorate. Its attitude to the demands of the oppressed majority, expressed by the African National Congress (founded in 1912) was at best ambiguous. Like nearly all the Parties of the pre1914 Second International, it was deeply divided internally between Right, opportunist and careerist, and Left, revolutionary and internationalist tendencies. As with these Parties, it was the traumatic experience of the first world war which intensified this division and brought it to the stage of an open, organisational rift. At first, in accordance with the well-known resolutions of the

Socialist International, the Labour Party leadership under the chairmanship of W. H. Andrews, took a bold stand. A resolution passed on August 2, 1914 denounced the war as unjust, and fomented by capitalist governments and armament manufacturers against the interests of the working class. The workers were called upon to organise against it. Similar resolutions were passed by the Industrial Federations and the Cape and Durban Social Democratic movements. However, the Right wing of the Party, led by Cresswell, launched a campaign to whip up chauvinist feelings against this decision, and to capture the Party leadership for a pro-war line. War on Want 'The experience of the war, like the experience of many crises in history, of any great calamity and any sudden turn in human life, stuns and breaks some people, but enlightens and tempers others.' LENIN, The Collapse of the Second International. The internationalists fought back. In September 1914, S.P.Bunting, Colin Wade, Ivon Jones and other advanced leaders of the Labour Party formed the War on War League. The League was by no means a 'pacifist' organisation pure and simple. In its leaflets and pamphlets, in its meetings and lectures, and in its short-lived but militant publication The War on War Gazette, it adopted a revolutionary socialist position. So mijitant was the Gazette that after a few months it suffered the fate of many future left journals in South Africa, it was 'censored out of existence'. In its issue of October 24 1914, it wrote: The WAR ON WAR of the future, the beginnings of whose strategy we believe we in our small way are helping to prepare, must be something even more world- shaking than the present Armageddon; something involving unprecedented discipline and daring, sacrifice and heroism, desperate conflict with all military governments and ruling class - a revolution., inspired by an inflexible determination to destroy utterly the Iron Heel which crushes the world.. A pamphlet 'Keeping the Red Flag Flying' (March 1915) addressed by the League to members of the Labour Party, emphasised 'the profound opposition between socialism and militarism, the fundamentally capitalist origin of war, the essentially international character of

The Burning Question of Labour IN SOUTH AFRIeA. Being an Address Dellvernd by R. TALBOT - WILLIAMS. i prga nising Secretary ai the Africam PoLitiml O)rffi,,isatinn (T'.znvaail and Free ,Ltit' Executive), To a Gathering of Coloured Workers At TNg fllkington Hall, Johannesburg, 4th January, 1918. This pamphlet is im!ed by The International Socialist League (S.A.), P.O. Box 11;7., ,Ima neubw. The Fighting Political Party of the Working Claw, irrespective of R-ace. Colour or Nationality. working class solidarity'. Recalling the famous slogan, 'Workers of the World Unite!'of the 'authors of the Communist Manifesto fifty years ago' thb pamphlet declared that 'the Administrative Council of the South African Labour Party as well as the South African Industrial Federation, true to tradition, reiterated their adherence to the same principles.' Acidly recalling the words of 'The Red Flag' 'Though cowards flinch' ('Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, we'll keep the Red Flag flying here') the League declares that 'it came as a shock . . when the Worker, the official organ of the Labour Party, began to jettison those principles as though they had never been seriously meant, and to sound exactly the same war note as the capitalist press'. The War on War League firmly identified itself with those trends in the international labour movement who had stood firm against the stream of chauvinism. 'In Germany the grand figure of Liebknecht.. stands at the head of a large and increasing army of anti-war Socialists. In Russia, the Socialist Party, more consistent than all, has throughout opposed the war at the price of wholesale arrest, deportation and execution.' It would have been humiliating' if South Africa had not produced such an organisation as the League, which was 'an inevitable reaction against the attitude of the militarist members of the Labour Party.' The Final Breach The internationalists, in the face of intensive censorship and persecution by the Botha-Smuts government, persisted courageously with their policy inside and outside the Party. The Creswellites, advocates of the 'see-it-through' policy, by contrast resorted to underhand factional activities and relied on whipping up jingoism. By July 1915 this intrigue had reached such serious proportions that a public rebuke 'The Labour Party's Duty in the War - A Reply to the "See-it-Through" policy' was issued by twenty leading members of the Party, headed by the Chairman, Bill Andrews, the Secretary, David Ivon Jones, S.P.Bunting, Colin Wade and others, including six members of the Transvaal Provincial Council. There was no denying, they wrote, that 'serious differences' existed in the Party about the war. Creswell spoke about his'duty to his country'. His real loyalty was not to South Africa but to the Empire. But 'the Labour or democratic principle and the imperialist principle cannot subsist in the one policy'. 'Socialism must imply real self-government for South Africa.'

'It is the Labour Party's, duty to the country not at all hazards to win the next elections, but to stand firm . . to the principle of peace and international goodwill and to the identity of interest of the international working class.' The appeal was in vain. The 'see-it-through' imperialist faction succeeded in August in forcing a special conference, packed by the Creswellites, at which they carried a pro-war resolution. The Right wing followed up this victory by demanding that all candidates for the coming elections pledge their support for the war. In protest eight executive members headed by the Chairman (Andrews), the Secretary (Jones) and the treasurer (Weinstock) resigned from their positions. A new body of internationalists, incorporating the War on War League, was formed, and started its own weekly - The International. Within a few weeks it became clear that the Labour Party would not tolerate a revolutionary wing within its ranks. In September 1915 they therefore quit the Labour Party and established a new organisation: The International Socialist League of South Africa. The New International 'Here we 'plant the flag of the New International in South Africa.' These were the challenging words with which David Iron Jones began his editorial in the very first issue of The International. For he and his comrades did not believe that the desertion of the leaders of the European socialist movement meant the end of that movement; they believed that out of that experience a new and greater movement would arise on sound, revolutionary foundations - the 'New International'. It was the very thought which Lenin had expressed in November 1914 when, unknown to the South Africans, whose knowledge of overseas developments was obscured by heavy censorship, he had written: 'The Second International is dead, overcome by opportunism. Down with opportunism, and long live the Third International.' 'What the labour movement requires is a return to the limpid, unequivocal affirmations of the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx.' wrote The International (Back to the Manifesto - 10 December 1915). It was precisely these two main characteristics of the I.S.L..: its devoted internationalism; and its determination to break with the opportunism of the Labour Party and return to the 'limpid, unequivocal affirmations' of Marxism which were its chief strengths. These were the qualities which enabled it to survive and develop, to overcome all its inner difficulties and external hostility, to provide the main foundation upon which the Communist Party was built in 1921. For the I.S.L. the break with the Labour Party meant a searching review of the opportunist errors which had led to its corruption: the assumption that it was the Party's duty 'at all hazards to win the next election' - and above all, that the white workers alone were or could be the vanguard of socialism in South Africa. Already in October 1915 Jones had written: 'An internationalism which does not concede the fullest rights which the Native working class is capable of claiming will be a sham. Not until we free the Natives can we hope to free the Whites.' He returned to the theme in The International in December 1915: 'Slaves to a higher oligarchy, the white workers of South Africa themselves batten on a lower slave class, the native races. Thus has the South African labour movement grown more intolerant to the native slaves than any other working class in the world, and consequently more parasitical than any other. To such a movement, talk of the international unity of the working class could never arouse sincere response.' The first Congress of the I.S.L., in January 1916, adopted a 'petition of rights', moved by S.P.Bunting, who was to prove a tireless advocate of African rights. This document demanded the abolition of pass laws and indentured and compound labour, and equal rights, political and industrial, for African workers. The League began to turn an ever-increasing proportion of its attention and activities towards the socialist enlightenment of the African and other non-white workers. For this it was bitterly attacked by the Labour Party. In the election of 1916 for the Transvaal Provincial Council the League candidate, W.H.Andrews declared that it was the 'imperative duty of the white workers to recognise their identity of interest with the native worker as against their common masters ... It is time for the white workers to deal with the native as a man and a fellow worker and not as a chattel slave or serf. Only that way lies freedom and justice for all.' For this, he was attacked by the official Labour Party candidate in a leaflet in Afrikaans in what the League described as 'an appeal to crass anti-colour prejudice prevalent in the orthodox Labour movement'. (Letter to the projected international socialist congress at Stockholm, 10 August 1917).

S. P. Bunting addressing an ICU meeting outside the Pass Office in Fordsburg Dip, Johannesburg, in the twenties. Standing on a chair is ICU leader Clements Kadalie. Interpreting is Communist Party leader T. Mbeki. 90

Nevertheless the I.S.L. continued increasingly to campaign against race and colour discrimination. In March 1917 the League called a meeting in Johannesburg to protest against the Native Administration Bill, an extension of the Land Act of 1913 designed to complete the proletarianisation of the African people. African Congress leaders Msane and Mbelle shared the League's platform on this historic occasion. The Russian Revolution The upheavals in Russia in 1917, as in the rest of the world, burst with shattering impact upon the workers and oppressed people of South Africa. The significance of Russia had never been lost upon the South African radicals: many zf them refugees from Tsarism because of their Jewish origin or Socialist principles. We have seen how Olive Schreiner had hailed the 1905 revolution, with the foresight of genius, as 'the greatest historical event for centuries' - she was equally enthusiastic in 1917. The War on War Gazette reprinted an article 'Why This War' from the British Columbia Federationist, 15 August 1914, caustically commenting on Britain's alliance with Russia 'which _had sent thousand of the best men and women who ever trod this earth to Siberia . . the great arch-enemy of human freedom whose name today stands among the nations as the master tyrant of this age.' The International, and particularly Ivon Jones, its editor, responded to the Russian events not only with enthusiasm but also with profound Marxist understanding. As early as February 1917, when progressives the world over were exulting at the downfall of Tsarism, Jones was one of the very few who warned, as did Lenin himself, of the shortcomings of this bourgeois-democratic revolution. This is a bourgeois revolution, but arriving when the night of capitalism is far spent it cannot be a repetition of previous revolutions. Now two classes pursue their several ways: one 'to prosecute the War abroad' and 'law and order' at home; the other to pursue the class war at home and the Socialist Republic in all countries.' "170 Million Recruits" - The International, March 23, 1917. From then on The International returned with mounting emphasis to the momentous Russian events. 'Exactly what the I.S.L. would have done . . that is what the Russian workmen have done.' (April) 'Russian Workmen Vindicate Marx' (Editorial, May). 'Full Support to the Russian Proletariat' (June). From July 1917 onwards The International began to receive and pass on to its readers information from actual Bolshevik sources. The July 1917 issue reproduced almost in full an article from Pravda (described as 'Lenin's Organ') and passages from Pravda appeared in nearly every issue thereafter, as well as from Izvestia. 'Lenin on the Top' was the heading of an editorial (August 31) declaring: 'The situation is developing in favour of the principles advocated by Lenin. Every week proves him right.' Dawn of the World The Great October Revolution was a triumphant vindication for Iyon Jones and his comrades. In November 1917 he wrote, under the above title: 'What we are witnessing is an unfolding of the worldwide Commonwealth of Labour, which if the oppressed of all lands only knew.. would sweep them into transports of gladness. It is this high ecstasy which animates the Russian people today . . . Our task in South Africa is a great one. We must educate the people in the principles of the Russian Revolution. We have to prepare the workers against any attempt to mobilise them against their Russian comrades, and in preparing, spread the flames of the most glorious and most peaceful revolution of all time.' Hearty greetings for the revolution were expressed at the annual I.S.L. Congress at the beginning of January 1918, and Bill Andrews, then visiting London, was instructed to meet the newly-appointed Soviet representative, Litvinov, to make contact between the League and the Bolsheviks. "We are South African Bolsheviks' declared the I.S.L. A pamphlet The Bolsheviks are Coming, written by Jones and L.H.Green was published in English, Zulu and Sesotho in 1918, Addressed to 'the workers of South Africa - Black as well as White', it paraphrased the Manifesto: A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Bolshevism. What is Bolshevism that the ruling class is so much afraid of? Why do they send British armies to Russia to fight the Bolsheviks? Why? We will tell you why!

The Great War of Nations is over and the class war against Labour has openly begun. Bolshevism means the rule of the working class! And where the workers rule, the capitalists cannot carry on their robber system any more.' For distributing this leaflet in Martizburg Jones and Green were prosecuted for 'inciting to public violence', and found guilty, the magistrate commenting that the leaflet was 'libellous, treasonable and indeed diabolical.' The worldwide upsurge of radical and working class movements that followed the imperliast war and the October Revolution by no means excluded the masses of South Africa. In Durban an Indian Workers' Industrial Union, on the lines advocated by Daniel de Leon and the American 'Industrial Workers' of the World' was established and sent a delegate to the annual conference of the I.S.L. in January 1918. Backed by the African National Congress, the I.S.L. founded the Industrial Workers of Africa, a general union of African workers, which later was to become absorbed by the I.C.U. (Industrial Workers' Union) which flourished mightily in the twenties and counted its membership in tens of thousands. Don't Scab In 1919 over 70,000 African miners on the Witwatersrand came out on strike. It was at this time that the I.S.L. issued its famous 'Don't Scab' leaflet: White Workers! Do you hear the new Army of Labour coming? The native workers are beginning to wake up. They are finding out that they are slaves to the big capitalists.. But they want to rise. Why not? They want better housing and better clothes, better education and a higher standard of life. White workers! On which side are you? Your interests and theirs are the same as against the Boss. Back them up! The Chamber of Mines will be asking you to take up the rifle to dragoon the Native strikers. Don't do it! The League did not confine its propaganda to white Workers, although at that time its membership consisted mainly of them. Leaflets were distributed to African- miners and other workers in Zulu, Sesotho

GOOD FRIDAY, 1909. LABOUR DAY DEMONSTRATION -ON THEMARKET SQUARE, JOHANNESBURG, At 10 o'clock prompt. THE EVENT OF THE YEARI ATTEND IN THOUSANDS! Speeches by prominent Labour Men. FOR RESOLUTIONS AND SPEAKERS SEE OVER. After the Demonstration, don't forget to attend the LABOUR DAY SPORTS On the Wanderers' Ground at 2 p.m. RECORD ENTRIES. BAND IN ATTENDANCE. ADMISSION 2/. GRAND eONeERT In the. Trades Hall, To-night, at 7.45. The Best Local Talent has been hooked. ADMISSION.-By Ticket, 1/. At Door, 1/6. Adligton & Co.--4sz98 and otl~er languages. Among them were a simple series of 'lessons' for those new to Marxist politics. 'Lesson 1' began: In the days gone by the Bantu people lived alone upon the land of Africa. The land belonged to them and they brought forth the fruits of the kindly earth for their common good. And in those days the only masters were the Kings of the Bantu people. Then came the white masters of the world and took away the land from the Bantu people so that they served the white masters and toiled for low wages. This is now come to pass more than two hundred years -: since the white masters of the world came to South Africa and prepared to make slaves of the Bantu people. Others in the series went on to explain the ideas of working-class internationalism and workers' organisation, and the significance of the October Revolution. The Comintern Although the I.S.L., as we have seen, was the earliest and most consistent in its support for the October Revolution, its magnetism attracted many others as well. Within the ranks of the local Social Democratic circles that still survived, among Jewish Socialist organisations on the Rand and elsewhere, most of whose members were themselves refugees from Tsarism and exulted at its downfall, were many who identified themselves with the Russian Bolsheviks. Notable among these were an enthusiastic group in the Cape who had broken away from the Social-Democratic Federation to establish the Industrial Socialist League. Its leaders, notably A.Z.Berman, J.Pick and Manuel Lopes, were followers of Daniel.de Leon and the American 'Industrial Workers of the World' whose views were extremely widespread on the left of the labour movement in the English-speaking world of that time. Their panacea was renunciation of separate unions in favour of 'one big Union'; no parliamentary elections but a general strike. Despite this 'ultra-Leftism' - it was still several years before Lenin was to explain its incorrectness in his brilliant 'Left-Wing Communism' the leaders of this movement identified themselves wholeheartedly with the Russian Revolution and its leaders. Its monthly journal was called The Bolshevik. Thus the Foundation of the Communist International found in South

Africa, as in a number of other countries, quite a few separate socialist organisations and groups which claimed to support its principles and desired to affiliate. The International Socialist League, as we have seen, had ever since its foundation called for a 'new international'. It warmly welcomed the advent of the Communist International. At its fifth annual conference on January 4, 1920 it unanimously decided to affiliate, and accordingly a letter to this eftect was sent, and read out, with applause, to the Second Congress of the Comintern on July 24. At the same time the Industrial Socialist League put forward a similar application. It was joined by some of the I.S.L. members in Johannesburg who - as a result of the refusal of the fifth conference (mentioned above) to accept their resolution to boycott elections formed a separate organisation, the 'Communist League'. In October these two bodies announced they had merged into the 'Communist Party of South Africa' with The Bolshevik as its official organ. But its ultra-left stance on elections and its main slogan 'Organise Now for the Socialist Revolution' were by no means representative of the views of the Communists of South Africa. A United Party In accordance with the 'Twenty-One Conditions' of affiliation to the Communist International, as formulated by Lenin at its Second Congress only one Party from each country was to be admitted. Publishing the full text of the conditions in The International, the I.S.L. took the initiative in bringing together the various socialist organisations to establish a single, united and disciplined Party which would meet the standards set by the Comintern. 100 representatives of nearly all the socialist organisations - among them, African and Indian trade unionists-attended the Fourth Congress of the League in Johannesburg on January 2, 1921, and agreed to start work on this proposal. At a Unity Conference in March 27 a 'Unity Committee' was set up to draw up a draft manifesto and constitution. This Committee, consisting of representatives of the I.S.L., the Social Democratic Party and Marxian Club of Durban, the Cape Town Communist Party, combining the Social Democratic Federation and other bodies, and the Jewish Socialist Society, agreed on the C.I.'s '21 Conditions'. The stage was set for the convocation of the Founding Conference of the Communist Party of South Africa, the delegates to which had been approved in advance by the participating organisations.

This was held at Cape Town from July 30 to August 1, 1921. Often the date July 29 has been given as that of the foundation of the Party. This is because on that date the establishment of the Communist Party had been announced at the Cape Town City Hall at a public rally attended by 2,000 workers, predominantly African and Coloured. But it was the Conference itself presided over by D.L.Dryburgh af Cape Town, which adopted the Party Constitution, declaring its name to be 'Communist Party of South Africa (South African Section of the Communist International)', approved a Manifesto, and elected the Party's executive. This consisted of C.B.Tyler (Chairman), W.H.Andrews (Secretaryeditor), S.P.Bunting (Treasurer) and G.Arnold, Rebecca Bunting, T. Chapman, J.den Bakker, R.Geldblum, A Goldman, H.Lee, E.M.Pincus and R.Rabb. The manifesto announced that the new Party had been formed by the union of the former International Socialist League (SA) the Social Democratic Federation of Cape Town, the Communist Party of Cape Town, the Jewish Socialist Societies of Cape Town and Johannesburg, the Marxian Club of Durban and other socialist bodies and individuals. Following an analysis of the class struggle, it pledged itself to struggle, despite 'any sacrifices it may be called upon to undergo' to hasten the time when mankind shall no longer cower under the bludgeon of the oppressor, when the necessaries and amenities of life, the comfort and the culture, the honour and the power, shall be to him who toils not him who 6xploits; when none shall be called master and none servant, but all shall be fellow-workers in common. In many ways, it was, clear that the main force behind the formation of the Party was the International Socialist League. Andrews, Tyler and Bunting held the same positions as they had in the League, The International became the Party organ, the majority of the membership were Leaguers. As late as 1929 the Programme of the Party, adopted at its Seventh Congress, referred to its 'origin in 1915' - an indication that it regarded itself as a continuation of the I.S.L. Yet the foundation conference of 192.1 marked a historic turning point. For the first time the revolutionary Marxists of the country came together in a single, united and disciplined Party. The Party organisationally became a detachment of the international Communist movement, a source of tremendous ideological development and political strength in the years to come. At a time when the African masses were still cut off from the mainstream of advanced international thinking, and immersed in a hard struggle against alien domination and expropriation it is not so remarkable that nearly all the early leaders and founders of the party were immigrants of European origin. It fell to their lot to pioneer revolutionary Marxist thought and organisation in South Africa. But from the earliest days, our pioneers increasingly directed their attention to the mobilisation and recruitment of the African and oppressed masses. These efforts, combined with the illuminating impact of Lenin's profound understanding of the national and colonial question, laid the basis for the transformation of the Communist Party into the revolutionary spearhead of the united Liberation fight; the Party of Johannes Nkosi, Albert Nzula, Moses Kotane and Yusuf Dadoo; of Govan Mbeki, Abram Fischer and Ahmed Kathrada, many of the heroes of Umkhonto we Sizwe. The founders of the Communist Party, veterans already in 1921 of the workers' fight against capitalism, built on sound and enduring foundations. The Party they established survived fifty years of calumny and persecution, and since 1950 of illegality and police terror; it has played and is playing an immense part in rallying the oppressed people against fierce national subjection; it is spreading through our African Communist the living truths of Marxism-Leninism throughout our continent. It will certainly survive to see the downfall of white domination and the fascist state and the triumph of the democratic South African revolution. In the words of the Soviet historian Appolon Davidson, to whose researches and writings I have been deeply indebted in the writing of this article: To understand South Africa and its prospects it is by no means enough to know the system of apartheid and its master minds.. though foreign publicists often concentrate their attention on this.. It is necessary to know something that does not stand out clearly today but which has deep roots, namely the traditions of protest. A place of honour among the custodians of these traditions belongs to the Communist Party of South Africa, whose half-century of history was devoted to persistent, selfless struggle for the triumph of equality, freedom and happiness of the people.

.R..' 'o. ~:* ".x.L 3" ,'¢' -: " '° ' LIBERIA! THE BLACK WHITES Liberia: The Evolution of Privilege by J. Gus Liebenow. Cornell University Press. 14s. 'The settlers clung tenaciously to the subtle differences that set them apart from the tribal "savages" in their midst. It was not then (nor is it today) unusual to hear tribal people refer to the Americo-Liberians as '"vhite" people.' In 1820 (the year in which Britain decided to settle a large number of her unemployed in African territory East of the then Cape Colony) ruling circles in America became concerned about what Mr. Liebenow calls 'the untenable position of "free persons of colour" in the United States.' That is, the then relatively few former Negro slaves who had somehow bought or acquired their freedom and to whom - then as now - the U. S. was not prepared to grant equal citizen rights. It was thought a good idea to 'repatriate' them to Africa. Accordingly a number (by 1867 this amounted to about 13 thousand) were induced to settle in the area now known as Liberia, where they declared themselves an independent state in 1847. To call this 'repatriation' was nonsense. The settlers' forbears no doubt came, unwillingly, from Africa, but they themselves had no knowledge of African language or cultures, and no sympathy with the indigenous peoples among whom they had come to live. The acquisitive American society from which they came represented to 'them the height of civilisation. Their object was to create for themselves and their descendants a copy of this sort of society in Africa. The African people and their land were regarded merely as objects of potential exploitation. The result has been the development of a structure in this country which differs only in degree from the white settler regimes in Southern Africa. The relationship between the descendants of the original settlers ( 'Americo-Liberians' ) who form about ten per cent of Liberia's 1 million-strong population and the indigenous population has been correctly described by President V. S. Tubman as 'colonial in character.' Mr. J. Gus Liebenow of Indiana University has made a painstaking study of this relationship, which goes to prove that the main difference between the Americo- Liberians and other settler regimes is one of skincolour. They impose hut taxes and forced labour. (p. 54.)They have a policy of reserves similar to that 'still utilised-by the whites in South Africa'; deport 'politically restive tribe members to more remote areas' aid impose 'influx control' to 'return tribal vagrants to the hinterland.' (p. 55.) The Americo-Liberians practised 'the forcible recruitment of labour to serve on private projects' not only for Firestone Rubber on its Liberian plantations, but also for sale to the Spanish for their cocoa and other plantations on the island of Fernando Po, an enterprise which 'brought a bonus of $ 45 a head for each of 3,000 men exported and a bonus of 4 5,000 for each additional group of 1,500 recruited' (p.68.) The Americo-Liberians who dominate not only political but also economic life have made enormous inroads into the traditional landholdings of the indigenous people. 'Quietly but steadily, as the new roads have penetrated the hinterland, the "honourables" and others who have the ear of the President have engaged in one of the most extensive programmes of land acquisition outside of South Africa, Rhodesia and the Portuguese dependencies.' (p.209) IRON ORE Since the last war, Liberia's economy has been transformedby the discovery of enormous iron ore resources. In 1955 the geologist Sandy Clark found that the 4,000 foot high Nimba Mountain 'was practically 100 a solid block of very high-grade iron ore.' Liberia today is the leading producer of iron ore in Africa and the largest exporter of it in the world. United States, West German, Swedish and Canadian companies are accumulating substantial profits, a railway and roads were pushed through to Buchanan harbour to get the ore out of the country. But the effect on the country's economy as such has been minimal. A team from Northwestern University found the country in the grip of a financial crisis, and a complete failure to involve the people of the country in any aspect of the development except, that of unskilled labour. They concluded that the failure was due ultimately 'to the political and economic system which leaves the tribal majority firmly under the control of the Americo-Liberian minority' (pp 172-175, passim.) The income-gap between the two communities continues to grow, although it is true, says Mr. Liebenow, that the ending of dependence on a single crop (rubber) and a single investor (Firestone) has led to better communications and 'a radical transformation in the way of life of tribesmen.' (p. 73.) But these changes must be seen in the light of the general picture of the economy, in which 97 per cent of the population (the indigenous Africans and 'lower-class Libero-Americans) get only 25 per cent of the national income, while the remaining 75 per cent of the national income was distributed to foreigners and 'the 3. per cent of the Liberian population that constitutes the political elite.' (p. 187.) In fact the economic 'development' like that of Southern Africa has been no unmixed blessing to the masses. 'The most striking result of the dramatic change in the Liberian economy is that the new roads make it easier for the Americo- Liberians - officials and non-officials alike - to exploit, the tribal hinterland through labour recruitment, the imposition of extraordinary taxes, and the constant requisitioning of crops and livestock.' There seems little prospect of peaceful fundamental reform in Liberia. Through the True Whig Party the ruling caste holds a monopoly of political power and office. The press is rigorously censored. (The editor of The African Nationalist, reports Mr. Liebenow, 'lingered fifteen years in prison before his release in 1966.' (p. 115.) Elections are fraudulent. Corruption and nepotism are rife. The Firestone strike of 1966 was savagely suppressed by the army. Nevertheless, under powerful pressure from African countries during the first decade of the African revolution, some important changes have taken place inside the country. In spite of the rigid line drawn between the 'civilised element' and 'the others' - sustained with arguments which faithfully repeat the disgusting fallacies of the white racists - there are no strict or legal barriers to prevent an exceptional person from a tribal background from crossing the line and being accepted into the ranks of the elite. 'Under the Tubman regime,' writes Liebenow, 'the elevation of persons of tribal origins ...... has been remarkably accelerated.' He does not give any figures of the number of 'assimilados' thus promoted, but obviously it must be relatively small. A 'Unification Programme' has been launched, and the franchise amended to provide a certain measure of indigenous African representation. These changes are more of form than of substance. The reins of power are still tightly in the hands of the 'heredity aristocracy.' But they have vitally important consequences and implications. They have enabled Liberia to play an important part in African affairs as a respectable member of the OAU. This part has almost invariably been highly detrimental to the African Revolution and the African people. It is an outpost of US imperialism. Liberia is the only African state to maintain, in defiance of the OAU Charter, a military alliance with the USA. It harbours a powerful 'Voice of America' radio station designed to reach the entire continent. Liberia is practically the only African state to support US aggression in Vietnam. In return the US has flooded the country with dollar loans and handouts, and 'technical advisors,' peace corps 'volunteers' (carefully vetted by the CIA) and agents in every shape and form. Since he successfully sabotaged Nkrumah's plans for African Unity at the Saniquellie meeting in 1966, Tubman has used what Liebenow calls his 'remarkable talents in international diplomacy' to back Tshombe against Lumumba and Gizenga, to strengthen ties with Banda and Bourgiba, and ceaselessly to oppose progressive African countries, ranging from the Nkrumah government in the sixties to the governments of the United Arab Republic, Algeria, Tanzania and Zambia today. Liberia, it is true, has persistently criticised apartheid and the 'Rhodesian settlers' rebellion, though its actual contribution to the liberation movements falls far short of that of countries with far less resources. And it is clear that, despite all the analogies which will have been in the mind of the reader of this review, there are important differences with the white settler regimes. Lacking a developed industrial base, the Liberian bourgeoisie is of the parasitical compradore type, far removed from the multi-millionaire monopoly bourgeoisie which the white settlers have produced in the South, able to sustain such a formidable military police machinery and an imperialist state threatening its neighbours. It is this factor, this weakness, more than any accident of origin or colour, which has differentiated the theory and practice of apartheid in Liberia; their flexibility is derived from the axiom that 'what can't bend must break.' The great merit of Mr. Liebenow's book is that he has turned the bright light of truth on the unedifying Liberian scene. The book has its faults. It is occasionally repetitive and it seems to have been compiled in too much of a hurry. But the writer has done his homework. He hasn't perhaps drawn all the conclusions, or necessarily the correct ones. But he gives you all the facts on which you can judge for yourself. A. LERUMO KADALIE OF THE ICU My Life and the ICU by Clements Kadalie. Frank Cass & Co. London. 42s. The history of the African working class in South Africa during the 1920's is dominated by the spectacular rise and fall of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union. It began with a small meeting, mainly of Cape Town dockers, on January 17 1919, at which 24 members were enrolled. Following a strike on the docks the movement spread 'like a veld fire' throughout the country and even in neighbouring countries, to embrace a quarter of a million members of town and platteland. (See The I.C.U. by Teresa Zania, African Communist No. 38, 1969). It then disintegrated almost as suddenly as it had appeared, but not without leaving a deep impress on our country's history. Much - though by no means all - of the ICU story is now available as seen through the eyes of Clements Kadalie, its first secretary, and dominant personality His autobiography - written in 1946 but only published for the first time in 1970 - is an extraordinarily, and often unconsciously, revealing document. It was quite by chance that Kadalie entered the trade union movement. An immigrant from Malawi (then the British Protectorate of Nyasaland) he worked at home as a teacher, then on various jobs, in f~ozambique, Rhodesia and Cape Town. Here he happened to meet A.F.Batty, a Labour Party candidate for the dock area, who persuaded him to begin organising the Non-European dockers (qualified NonWhites at that time enjoyed the right to vote though not to stand for Parliamentary elections). 103

Nothing in Clements Kadalie's background or outlook at that time could have marked him out as the future leader of Africa's biggest workers' organisation. The mission-educated son of an Askari chief, he qualified as a teacher at the age of sixteen. In his first job, to be sure, he showed a rebellious streak. But his reason was interesting: 'I was of the royal blood and was brighter than the head teacher, who belonged to an ,ordinary family ...... I refused to take orders from the head teacher, whom I looked upon as not my equal educationally, while inherently he belonged-to an inferior class'. His rebellion was successful. 'I won my first strike single-handed', he writes, and was given a headmastership elsewhere, where he was much influenced by his uncle, Rev. Y.Z. Mwasi, 'a very powerful emotional speaker ...... With him I gained much experience as a preacher on the pulpit'. In Rhodesia, and later in South Africa he met the usual humiliations and indignities of Africans, especially the minority who have acquired some education and have mastered English. He left his job as a mine clerk to enlist in the army, but did not carry out this resolve. Certainly he protested at various injustices inflicted upon him in one job after another, and writes feelingly about the cruelty of a cotton planter in Mozambique who 'daily sjambokked labourers for petty offences' and even shot at them. Dut until he chanced upon Batty there was no indication of any interest on his part in political or trade union organisation. In 1920, after his election as full time secretary, 'it dawned on me that I had a big part to play in the trade union movement. I therefore decided to equip myself intellectually'. His way of doing this was to join a private commercial college, 'especially taking lessons in the art of public speaking.' Powerful Orator This was indeed an art in which Kadalie excelled. His book is replete with such naive remarks as 'A powerful oration was delivered by me'. (p.143.) 'For two hours I held the huge audience spellbound'. (p.71.) 'I spoke for nearly two hours without interruption for my oratory had apparently captured the audience.' (p.90.) 'I delivered one of the best speeches on the (European) continent, which made a big impression on the audience.' (p.131.) But in fact these self-recommendations are not necessary for there was hardly anyone who heard and saw Kadalie on the platform who did not pay tribute to his powerful oratory and magnetic personality. Looking back on the history of the I.C.U. it is clear that it owed a tremendous amount to the presence and articulate- ness of its principal evangelist and propagandist. But it was not only the platform ability, it was above all the content of what he had to say which drew the masses. Clearly, the African and Coloured workers who flocked in their hundreds of thousands into the ICU in the early and middle twenties were not the dupes of a charismatic personality: they joined the ICU and gave it their allegiance because they believed its message. The great mystery of Kadalie's book is the absence, to a very large extent, of the content of that message, and therefore of the real reason for the spectacular growth and development of the JCU. And yet, to the perceptive reader, the book itself contains the answer to that mystery. During its earlier years the ICU adopted an extremely radical and militant policy; in many respects a revolutionary policy. There were the years of post-war disillusionment, of broken promises, of crisis and unemployment. They were the years when the masses, following the impact of the October Revolution,,were moving everywhere to the Left. This mood was- reflected in the propaganda and actions of the ICU, with its message of working class internationalism, of militant anticolonialism and anti-racialism. It was in fact not mainly Kadalie himself, though he often gives that impression, who'moulded the original ideological and organisational pattern of the ICU. Among its earliest members and most devoted leaders were the South African Communists who in 1917 had anticipated the ICU with the IWA (Industrial Workers of Africa). Kadalie himself pays tribute to the outstanding role played in the building Of the ICU by such Communists as James la Guma, the general secretary, E.J. Khaile, T. Mbeki, Johnny Gomas and de Norman, many of whom were forced to resign in the witch-hunt of 1926. I find it impossible to believe that close association with men such as these, veterans of the class and national liberation struggles, armed with Marxist understanding, did not play a tremendous part in influencing, moulding and training the brilliant agitator and people's tribune Clements Kadalie as he was at the height of his powers. An influence far greater, let us say, than his lessons in public speaking at the Efficiency Institute. It must have been a revelation, a transforming experience and a turning point for the young ex-teacher from Malawi, to know and to work with such men. Yet of all this Kadalie chose to write nothing in his autobiography. Key to the Mystery In addition to his great talents and achievements there were serious 105 weaknesses in the character of Clements Kadalie, which the enemy and its agents well knew how to make use of. Both Stanley Trapido, who writes a scholarly introduction to the present edition, and Will Stuart, M.P. who contributed a Foreword to the original manuscript, remark on his vanity and egoism. He saw the ICU not only as a means of raising the wretchedly-paid and oppressed masses, but also as one of giving him personally the status and respectability he craved. He wanted - an impossible dream in white-dominated South Africa - the sort of public esteem symbolised by the elevation of-top trade union officials in Britain to the House of Lords. A number of passages in his autobiography quite unashamedly reveal this streak of careerism and make him esteem the occasional crumbs of recognition from the class enemy above the love and confidence of the working people who had raised him to his position and made him what he was. His court victories, his meetings with General Hertzog, Minister Madeley, British Dominions secretary J. H. Thomas and other notabilities are highlights. During a general strike in East London which brought the town to a standstill over a wage issue, Kadalie was arrested. He immediately called the strike off on the grounds that he had to concentrate on preparing his case in Coutt. He records the court proceedings in detail, but not a word about what happened to the workers and their demands. And all this with an air of satisfaction which reveals an absence not merely of self-criticism but even of a consciousness that such conduct is unforgivable in a leader. Truly, this book needs to be studied by African trade unionists not so much as an example but also as a warning! It was precisely this weakness which the enemy and its agents were able to make use of to undermine, to split, to emasculate and ultimately to destroy the ICU. Kadalie had an ambivalent attitude towards the Communist Party and its members in the ICU. Quite obviously their work played an indispensable part in the building of the organisation. Their drive and selfless devotion, their high level of political consciousness, their collective experience of organisation helped enormously to make the ICU what it was. But equally obviously, they were, from the point of view of a man like Kadalie, a great nuisance as well, ever demanding militant and dangerous action, opposing autocratic and arbitrary methods, calling for democratic control over decisions and especially of funds - one of the rocks on which the organisation eventually fouhdered. (Readers are referred to Teresa Zania's article cited above, for details). Also, Clements Kadalie as he shows time and again in his book was 106 mortally afraid of being smeared as a Communist. When Tom Mann as a veteran British trade unionist came to address the January 1923 ICU Conference in Cape Town, the bourgeois press 'exploited his presence to the full and later for a long time the ICU was suspected of Communist tendencies ...... This diabolical misrepresentation' he continues 'culminated' when the visit of himself and James La Guma to Lovedale Missionary College was headlined in a newspaper as 'Bolsheviks Visit Lovedale'. It was partly such factors which led to Kadalie's break with the Communists and the splitting of the ICU. But, as he himself admits 'there were other factors behind the scenes'. There were, 'certain European women' (he mentions, among others, Ethelreda Lewis, the novelist, Winifred Holtby and Margaret Ballinger) 'whose advice and help led me to adopt a middle course' (i.e. to drive Communist Party members out of the ICU leadership). A resolution was steamrollered through the National Council in December 1926 precluding Party members from being officials of the ICU, whereupon Jimmy La Guma, the assistant general secretary, J. Khaile, financial secretary, and others resigned. 'The decision of the National Council' wrote Kadalie, 'was communicated to the daily press, receiving a good reception. The Communist press thought otherwise. It heralded the news as the road towards the disappearance of the ICU from the political scene ...... Instead of the ICU heading towards its doom as foreshadowed by the Communists ...... the ICU went from strength to strength'. It seems incredible that Kadalie could have written that comment in 1946. For as he himself records, the ICU, fragmented by inner disputes, lay in ruins by 1928. Kadalie says that the Communists were trying to 'capture the ICU', though throughout his narrative he brings not a jot of evidence to substantiate the allegation. It seems much more true to say that persuaded by his European lady advisers and others, he had become convinced that to break with the Communists and cut down the ladder by which he had ascended would ensure him and the ICU of respectability and recognition. In the event it did neither, but broke the ICU as an effective force - and Kadalie too. Kadalie's refusal to face this harsh fact is the key to the extraordinary lack of real political drive and conviction in this book. He has consciously or unconsciously censored the record, emasculating it of its dynamic and revolutionary content to conform with the later image, advised by the liberals and later by the Scottish 'adviser' William Ballinger, sent out by the British ILP to preside over the death-agonies of the ICU, the image of a nonpolitical British-type respectable trade union exclusively concerned with the daily'bread-andbutter problems of its members. Despite all that I have written, Kadalie's own story reveals him, all in all, as a most remarkable and engaging personality. He is without malice. He has not a single criticism to make of his African and other non-white Communist colleagues in the ICU. Even the 'white Communists' here and there referred to as sinister influences, emerge when dealt with as individuals, as highly estimable men and fighters for the working class. Bill Andrews and Sidney Bunting, he writes, 'gave unselfish help' to the ICU, which regarded Andrews as 'a great trade unionist who knew no colour bar.' Bunting and Eddie Roux often used to address ICU meetings in Johannesburg; 'these two men did a lot for individual African leaders.' Kadalie was by no means, as his book so disarmingly reveals, the ideal workers' leader. He lacked the total dedication and toughness, the depth of political understanding and emancipation of spirit. Apart from his egoism, he never truly broke free from the prejudices and indoctrination of his background and education. Yet during his finest years he rose above these limitations. He became the instrument of the masses, voicing their anger and their aspirations, as no other man of his time could do. Those were the years for which South Africa will remember and honour Clements Kadalie. A. LERUMO. HEROIC EPISODE Reluctant Rebellion. The 1906-8 Disturbances in Natal. by Shula Marks. 404 pages. Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press. 1970. £4. "Hilferding rightly notes the connection between imperialism and the intensification of national oppression. 'In the newly opened-up countries, (he writes), the capital imported into them intensifies antagonisms and excites against the intruders the constantly growing resistance of the peoples who are awakening to national consciousness; this resistance can easily develop into dangerous measures against foreign capital. The old social relations become completely revolutionised, the age-long agrarian isolation of 'nations without history' is 108 destroyed and they are drawn into the capitalist whirlpool. Capitalism itself gradually provides the subjugated with the means and resources for their emancipation and they set out to achieve the goal which once seemed highest to the European nations: the creation of a united national state as a means to economic and cultural freedom. This movement for national independence threatens European capital in its most valuable and promising fields of exploitation, and European capital can maintain its domination only by continually increasing its military forces." (1). This paragraph provides us with the clues necessary for a correct appreciation of the place of the Bambatha Rebellion (the subject of the book under review) in the struggle for national liberation, not only in South Africa, but also on a world scale. The rebellion was inevitable. It was the outcome of the "intensification of national oppression" characteristic of imperialism; of the intensification of antagonisms by the capital imported into South Africa. Shula Marks has done a very useful job in documenting the background to the Bambatha Rebellion in the first 168 pages of her book. This is the story of the defeat of the Zulu people by the Boer and British colonisers. It tells of the raping of the land of the Zulus by the "intruders"; the subjugation of their chiefs and government by the colonial power. It tells of the revolutionisation of "the old social relations", with increasing numbers of the Zulu people forced to work in the mines, in industry and as domestic servants, turned into an agricultural proletariat or tenants paying rent to white landowners, compelled to pay the Poll Tax which "was oppressive" (p.143), their chiefs forced "to call out labour for the roads and public works of the colony ...... " (p.43). The Zulu people were brought face to face with the full might of the bourgeois state, with its instruments of repression, the army and the police, the judges, the magistrates and the law courts. (The book also contains an interesting chapter on "The Missionary Factor" with useful information on the birth of independent African churches. Here we also meet with names such as John Dube, Saul Msane, Josiah Gumede etc., founders of the Natal Native Congress, and later, the African National Congress. Elsewhere in the book the activities of these patriots are also discussed.) Defeat Inevitable Inevitable as the armed uprising was, inevitable also was its defeat. This is so because it came before its time. Its weaknesses and mistakes are at the same time pointers to what should be done in order to gain victory over the imperialist oppressor. Firstly, though the hostility of the African people to the intruder was general, yet the uprising itself failed to assume a general character. This was in part due to the absence of an organisation which could mobilise the people, not only in Natal, but also throughout South Africa: in part it was due to the fact that national consciousness had not developed to the level enabling such a nation-wide uprising to take place. Hence the uprising relied on the traditional rulers for its leadership, this containing within itself the divisive influences of an earlier society, actively encouraged by the colonial government's policy of divide and rule. Secondly, the insurrectionists were poorly armed. Modern weapons were the exception rather than the rule. Bambatha had to oppose cannons, the Maxim gun and breech-loaders with the spear. Shula Marks writes: "The white losses amounted to twenty-four, including six who had died from causes other than the enemy ...... Thirty seven white soldiers were wounded and half a dozen civilians killed. The number of loyal levies killed .was also six, and thirty were' wounded. The African losses were far, far higher. Some three to four thousand had been killed and in September 1906 some seven thousand were in gaol ...... (p.237) ...... seven hundred Africans had their backs 'lashed to ribbons' (p.238) ...... In Mapumulo, Ndwendwe and Lower Tugela 6,700 huts had been destroyed and well over 30,000 people had been rendered homeless. For months afterwards no one could be found to bury he dead." (p.23940). Thus the enemy, confident of its blatant superiority in military technology, not only sought to wipe out the insurgents, but also conducted a policy of terrorism against the peasants, aimed at discouraging them from supporting the armed contingents. Thirdly, the commanders of the patriotic forces assumed a defensive posture when they should have gone on to the offensive. Where guerrilla warfare tactics were the most suitable, they mostly concentrated large forces in one place, not breaking them up into smaller units, with high mobility, refusing to do battle on the enemy's terms. All this does not however detract from the heroism of the insurgents of 1906-8. That with all the odds they had against them they nonetheless refused to surrender, that they refused to denounce the cause, which was not only theirs but was also of all the oppressed peoples throughout the world, speaks of the stout- heartedness, the willingness 110 to accept death which marks out the revolutionary from the wise-acre who says "it should never have been attempted." Speaking of another 'revolution that failed', the Russian Revolution of 1905, Lenin said: "The real education of the masses can never be separated from their independent political, and especially revolutionary, struggle. Only struggle educates the exploited class. Only' struggle discloses to it the magnitude of its own power, widens its horizon, enhances its abilities, clarifies its mind, forges its will. That is why even reactionaries had to admit that the year of the struggle, the "mad year", definitely buried patriarchal Russia." (2). New Spirit It is appropriate that Shula Marks concludes her book with this story: "When in 1912 Dube addressed a group of Africans in Zululand to explain the new (Congress) movement and appeal for African unity, a member of his audience made the vital link: '1 thank Bambatha. I thank Bambatha very much. Would this spirit might continue! I do not mean the Bambatha of the bush who perished at Nkandhla, but I mean this new spirit which we have just heard explained." (p.356). As history presents to every people at different times, different tasks, we today must refer also to the spirit of "Bambatha of the bush who perished at Nkandhla." History has presented the oppressed and exploited peoples of South Africa with the task, again, of armed uprising. A new army of the people, Umkhonto weSizwe, has been born. Operating in conditions vastly different from those of 1906, with the unity of all the oppressed peoples achieved; with the collapse of the colonial system an established fact; with an army equipped with the most modern weapons, thanks to the support of the proletariat that emerged victorious in 1917, the support of the USSR and other socialist countries; with the support rendered to the oncoming uprising by the world anti-imperialist movement; operating in these qualitatively new conditions, the new people's army nevertheless recalls the indomitable spirit of Bambatha, draws inspiration from his exploits and learns from his mistakes. "Let us remember that a great mass struggle is approaching. It will be an armed uprising. It must, as far as possible, be simultaneous. The masses must know that they are entering upon an armed, bloody and desperate struggle. Contempt for death must be widespread among them and will ensure victory. The onslaught on the enemy must be pressed with the greatest vigour; attack, not defence, must be the slogan of the masses; the ruthless extermination of the enemy will be their task; the organisation of the struggle will become mobile and flexible; the wavering elements among the troops will be drawn into active participation. And in this momentous struggle, the party of the classconscious proletariat must discharge its duty to the full." (3). THOBILE Notes: (1) V. I. Lenin: Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism: Selected Works, Vol. 1, Moscow, 1967. p.771. (2) V. I. Lenin: Lecture on the 1905 Revolution: Selected Works, Vol. 1, Moscow, 1967. p.792. (3) V. I. Lenin: Lessons of the Moscow Uprising: Selected Works,Vol. 1, Moscow, 1967. p.583. RUTH FIRST: THE BARREL OF A GUN: Political power in Africa and the Coup d'Etat. (Allen Lane The Penguin Press, London, 84/-) Military coups d'etat are a depressingly familiar phenomenon in contemporary Africa: all over the continent, the soldiers march out of the barracks to elbow the politicians aside, take control, and establish an indef'i e period of rule by the gun. The coup has become, one might almost say, the established method of governmental change on the continent - and yet our grasp of its meaning has lagged far behind the ubiquitous political reality of the military putsch. Aside from the plethora of bourgeois academic and journalistic writings on the African military - which, even bourgeois commentators feel, fail to provide any adequate analysis - revolutionary theorists until now have likewise been unable to produce a thorough and convincing explanation of why coups happen. Ruth First's new book is a massive and invaluable contribution to fulfilling this urgent need. Within its 500 pages are not only detailed analyses of three of the most important African coup sequences Nigeria, Ghana and the Sudan - and extended discussions of numerous others, but a brilliant and sustained theory of African politics, the implications of which go far beyond the phenomenon of the coup 112 d'etat. This is no collection of armchair theorising. Ruth First visited a number of African countries in the course of her research, and the material on Ghana, Nigeria and the Suda" is unique in its disclosures: she has not only studied the relevant literature and documentation, but has interviewed a large number of the leading participants, whose words are extensively quoted. It is on this firm basis that her argument is constructed. The basic fact of African political and economic life is dependence dependence of the young states (and the elites which govern them) on the imperialist world system; and it is this situation which lies at the root of the African political crisis. The political elites which control African states are not the representatives of a developed social class, for colonial underdevelopment prohibited the formation of indigenous African capitalism as well as the development of other cohesive social groups which might have served as the basis for a fairly secure political elite to function. Instead, the State itself has emerged as the central feature of political and economic life: the State is not only the locus of power, but the source for the accumulation of capital, simply because there is little opportunity, given the poverty of African societies, for capital to be accumulated by "orthodox" economic activity. Thus the elite (the educated, the politically powerful, the occupants of the administrative and military hierarchies) prey on the State, depleting its already pitifully scarce resources. Miss First gives telling details of the way in which politicians have milked State offices to accumulate fortunes - to turn themselves from a political elite into a parasitic bourgeoisie, a bourgeoisie which is totally incapable of achieving economic development of even the most exploitative kind (characteristically, the businessman-politician is involved in "growth without development" - land speculation or import-export agencies, for example). Even more marked has been the tendency for the young state to provide employment for vast armies of civil servants (at colonial-level salaries, naturally): in Ivory Coast, for example, the civil service, accounting for onehalf of one per cent of the country's population eats up a staggering 58% of the total budget in salaries! In Dahomey, civil servants consume even more - 64.9%. This robbery sharpens the economic and governmental crisis endemic to underdevelopment: increasingly, the political elite is engaged in struggle within itself over the spoils of office, rather than in arguments about policy. And it is under these conditions that the likelihood of military intervention looms.

Allies or Agents of Imperialism? Ruth First sets out what she calls a "general condition of coup fertility in Africa", manifested in four main ways: cumulative economic crisis; a gathering political crisis as the shallow unity of independence breaks down in the fierce contests for control over the economic levers of the state; the role of imperialist powers, in the attitude they display towards military intervention (and it is important to note, as she does, that foreign powers seek allies among the elite in the former colonies rather than agents so that the role of imperialisn is characteristically diffuse rather than specific); and the internal condition of the army itself. In this crisis situation, the army may intervene for a range of reasons: "army reasons" (blocked career structures, political meddling in "army affairs"); or because of the reactions of sections of the officer class to political corruption and ineptitude; or at the direct or indirect instigation of administrators (either because their careers or plunder are being affected by political acts, or because they have political ideas about "good government"); or as an extension of political conflicts involving counter-elites or outside interests. What of the characteristics of army rule itself? Military government may give an impressive air of permanence and stability - and in one sense at least this is true, for it represents naked force and weaponry in government. Furthermore, the tendency everywhere is for military rulers (who are of course buffoons when it comes to actually operating the administrative machine) to depend increasingly on the bureaucratic structure. (Ruth First tells the revealing story of the Nigerian coupmaker, Major Nzeogwu, on the day after the coup. He sat at a desk bare of papers; he neither Ai'ade nor received telephone calls. It was, only when a senior expatriate civil gervant pressed him on what the administration should do - whether the schools and public offices should open, whether civil servants were to remain at their posts that it occurred to him that he should issue any instructions for the functioning of the state!) The soldiers are driven into the arms of the administrators, whose ideas (e.g. about "efficiency" in government) they largely share, and whose expertise they need. A militarised bureaucracy is thus willy- nilly established. Limits To Power But there are serious constraints on bureaucratic/military power. In the first place, the army and its civil service allies find that their ideas about good government, even if they do not immediately drown in a sea of 1corruption on as great a scale as that of the old regime, can do nothing significant about the general crisis in which the neo-colony finds itself. They can substitute no new policy for the former absence of it, for effective and radical policy-making is impossible without politics; and after the first short period of putschist euphoria, they are even less capable of popular mobilisation than the old guard politicians, either to solve their political isolation from the populace or to solve the economic problems with which they are faced. And, as Miss First so clearly shows, once the army emerges from the shelter of the barracks, and seizes the prizes of the state, "it soaks up social conflict like a sponge": struggles develop within the officer class, very often based on regional and ethnic loyalties, and the old pattern of intrigue and political tug-of-war, far from being laid to rest, re-asserts itself with new force. The military coup thus emerges, not as a potential solution to the political and economic problems of underdevelopment, but as an ultimately sterile holding operation. Even where the coup-makers have had radical sympathies and motivations, as in the Sudan, the elitist essence of the coup process militates against fundamental change and sustained popular mobilisation. (As this review is being written, it is reported from the Sudan that the "revolution" has turned on some of its revolutionary allies, in the detention or dismissal of a number of radicals in leading positions, including three Ministers of the Revolutionary Council). Ruth First's is an impressive achievement. There are minor objections on specific points, which need not detain us; there are also, however, somewhat more important reservations, which must be briefly discussed. What About The People? The first of these relates to the character of the elites which dominate African political life, and in particular to the political elites which the succession of military coups aimed at displacing. Ruth First's view of them is oddly incomplete: we get the impression that, apart from the heady days around independence, these politicians exist in office and power totally divqrced from the population. In many important respects, of course, this is quite true; it is also true, however, that often they have very specific and important roots in the communities (particularly the ethnic groups) from which they sprang. They are able to maintain a significant measure of popular support by the judicious distribution of patronage and services: the peasantry supports them, not because of fervent political commitment, but because local communities need the resources which the politicians control, and there is no 115 alternative means of access to state resources. The position of a large sector of the political elite, then, is complex, full of ambiguities and contradictions - more complex than the Fanonist thesis which Ruth First puts forward would allow. The second criticism stems, I think, from a shortcoming which was almost inevitable. So much of African politics and coup politics concerns manoeuvres and intrigues within the elite: it is at least understandable, then, that the analysis is elite-briented, and pays very little attention to what is happening among the mass of the people, to explaining the actions (or, for the most part, the inaction, which may be much more difficult, but which is equally important) of the urban proletariat, and in particular of the peri-urban un- and under-employed and the peasantry. It is clear that Miss First recognises that such' questions are of crucial importance in discussing the possibility of revolutionary mobilisation and radical social change - indeed, one of the most important discussions in the closing stages of the book revolves around the peasantry in politics, and includes some fascinating speculations based on the experience of peasant mobilisation and guerrilla warfare in Guinea-Bissau. It is perhaps a just defence to say that this is the subject -of another book; nevertheless, to change the world of African underdevelopment we must understand not only the failure of politics in the capital, but the failure of the political process in the countryside. In that sense, the role of the masses, even in their passivity, must be placed at the centre of the analysis. A. LANGA. 116

150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ENGELS (This paper was presented by the representative of the South African Communist Party at the Scientific Conference held in Berlin from November 12-13, 1970, to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels. The conference was organised by the Socialist Unity Party of the German Democratic Republic and was attended by 42 delegations, including representatives from the Parti Congolais du Travail of Congo Brazzaville, the Arab Socialist Union and the Socialist Party of Japan.) "Let us always honour the memory of Frederick Engels, a great fighter and teacher of the proletariat." ,(Lenin) On behalf of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party I would like to thank the CC of the Socialist Unity Party of the German Democratic Republic for inviting us to attend this historic occasion. We would also like to greet all participants at this meeting and assure them that in our view, our sharing of ideas at gatherings such as these, is a vital component of the struggle for the communist reorganisation of the world. It is in this spirit that we are participating in this seminar. It is highly appropriate and significant that this conference to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Engels, one of the great teachers and leaders of the international working class and a great son of the German people, should be held in the first socialist state on German soil - the German Democratic Republic.

Decisive Force Engels contributed greatly to a deep understanding and insight into the class structures and composition of all societies, which led him and Marx to the profound proposition that the working class and its party, guided by the principles of scientific socialism constitutes the decisive force in the struggle for socialism. Although we cannot separate Engels from Marx, we recognise that Engels paid particular attention to such issues as the role, structure and position of the peasantry and the hollowness and misleading nature of the concepts of the Utopian Socialists. In this paper we shall concentrate on those aspects of his works which are particularly relevant to our armed revolutionary struggle to overthrow the hated system of Apartheid and .the consolidation of the independence of the young states of our continent. Engels wrote "The Peasant War in Germany" in 1850, after the defeat of the 1848-9 revolution in which both Marx and Engels were "the heart and soul of the revolutionary-democratic aspirations in Rhenish Prussia." (1) After Marx was forcibly deported, Engels played a prominent part in the popular armed uprising, fighting in three battles. In this outstanding work, Engels brought out the revolutionary traditions of the German people, and produced at the same time a classic work of application of dialectical and historical materialism to anti-feudal peasant movements applicable to countries other than Germany. This work also gives us a brilliant insight into the conditions under which revolutionary aspirations take a religious form, the inherent weaknesses of a purely peasant movement and the class composition and differentiation of the rural folk. An Example His exposure of the limitations and vulnerability of the peasant movements, such as "the lack of organisation, the spontaneous and disjointed nature of the peasant movement, and the low level of consciousness among peasants" (2), are to some extent applicable to our struggle and our continent. Moreover, it is a firm rejoinder to those anti-Marxists who only seek to idealise the small peasantry and cut it off from its natural ally, the industrial working class. He developed and emphasised this theme in later works such as, "The Peasant Question in France and Germany", "On the History of the Prussian Peasantry" and "The Mark". In all of his writings on the peasant question, Engels shows forcibly that in any country which is predominantly agricultural, no revolutionary transformation is possible against the will of the small peasant. But, that it is only in alliance with the working class that the small peasant can be truly liberated. For it is only the working class, in alliance with the small peasants and agricultural labourers that is capable of radically transforming these societies thus creating a basis for a socialist society, free from the fetters and exploitation of capital. That both Marx and Engels fully realised the revolutionary significance of this alliance is shown in a letter Marx wrote to Engels. In this letter, Marx expressed the following biilliant proposition: "The whole thing in Germany will depend on the possibility of backing the proletarian revolution by some second edition of the Peasant War... "(3) This is the key to the anti-imperialist struggles of the national liberation movements both in countries under colonial rule and those suffering from the machinations of neo-colonialism. Role of Peasantry In our country and our continent, the toiling peasantry is a mighty force with great revolutionary potential. It is actively participating in the struggles against imperialism, for the continuation of the struggle for complete liberation and the defence of the independence of the newly-independent states. Thus African Communists regard as absolutely essential the intensifying of activity among the peasant masses, arming them with the proletarian ideology, and the building of the revolutionary alliance of workers and peasants. Our country has a large proletariat, made up of the urban, industrial, migrant and agricultural sections. But it also has a large agricultural population, to a greater or'lesser extent relying on the land' for its subsistence in conditions of natural economy, modified and almost destroyed by the countrywide domination of capital. Another part of the non-white-agricultural population is on the capitalist farms as labour tenants, in fact working as forced labour. A central task of our Party and the national liberation movement as a whole, remains that of uniting the working people in the town and countryside for the victory of the national democratic revolution. Class Divisions Furthermore, the work of Engels on the peasants shows how a dialectical approach to this question will bring out clearly that the rural people are not a homogeneous group, but have sharp differentiations with the small peasants and the agricultural labourers being the natural allies of the proletariat, and the large landowners forming an exploiting 119 class. What Engels said about the small peasants in France is applicable to the continents of Africa and Asia. He said: "We of course are decidedly on the side of the small peasant; we shall do everything at all permissible to make his lot more bearable, to facilitate his transition to the co-operative should he decide to do so, and even make it possible for him to remain on his small holding for a protracted length of time to think the matter over should he still be unable to bring himself to this decision ... The greater the number of peasants whom we can save from being actually hurled down into the proletariat, whom we can win to our side while they are still peasants, the more quickly and easily the social transformation will be accomplished... "(4) Engels' scientific approach becomes even more relevant for Africa where deep- going changes in the rural areas have been brought about by capitalist development, resulting in vast differentiation in agriculture. An examination of the statistics shows clearly that in a large part of our continent, farm labour constitutes a vital component of the total wage labour force and that in some cases, like Ghana and Nigeria, more than half of the total output of cocoa is produced by the owners of large plantations. African Socialism Engels' writings, his polemics and sharp criticism of the Utopian Socialists is also especially significant to the peoples of Africa. For, in our continent, apart from the more radical governments who are conscious of the class struggle in African society, there is a large number of new states professing the utopian and dangerous creed of "African Socialism". They idealise the peasantry, whilst at the same time making the working class and their organisation a target for constant abuse and attack. "African Socialism", as Amat Dansoko correctly said: '". . often serves as a veil for neo-colonialism and for co-operation with the imperialists. In other words, social utopias become a form of social demagogy meant to confuse the masses." (5) Against all other ideas on the path to be followed by the masses of the people in the former colonies, the international communist movement puts forward the idea of the possibility of by-passing capitalism, as the only path that guarantees progress in the direct interest of the working people. The idea of the non-capitalist path of development was already put forward by Engels in 1882 when he wrote:

"Once Europe is reorganised, and North America, that will furnish such colossal power and such an example that the semi-civilised countries will of themselves follow in their wake; economic needs, if anything, will see to that. But as to what social and political phases these countries will then have to pass through before they likewise arrive at socialist organisation, I think we today can advance only rather idle hypotheses. One thing alone is certain: the victorious proletariat can force no blessings of any kind upon any foreign nation without undermining its own victory by so doing. "(6) It was of course Lenin who developed this concept, enriched it and participated in the process of its actual proof in life, turning what would have been an idle hypothesis into reality, based on the voluntary cooperation of the victorious proletariat and the peasant masses of the East. It is in this context that Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the CPSU correctly pointed out: "In the present-day conditions, the problem of relations between the working class and the peasantry in the former colonial countries is largely of an international nature. "(7) Already in the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels had written: 'Just as (the bourgeoisie) has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made the barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the civilised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West..." (8) As they upheld the cause of the proletariat and the peasants, thus also did they uphold the cause of the colonial peoples. They followed their struggles with close attention and warm understanding. Engels wrote on our own colonised people, the Zulus of South Africa and the Nubians of the Sudan that : "(These people) did what no European army can do. Armed only with pikes and spears and without firearms, they advanced, under a hail of bullets from the breech-loaders, right up to the bayonets of the English infantry . . . throwing them into disorder and even beating them back more than once; and this, despite the fact that they have no such thing as military service and do not know what military exercises are. " (9) This great respect which Engel's had for the "peoples of the East" fighting a popular war in defence of the national interest, however backward these people, we also see in his article on "Persia and China" of

1857, in which he says: "instead of moralising on the horrible atrocities of the Chinese, as the chivalrous English press does, we had better recognise that this.. a populir war for the maintenance of Chinese nationality, with all its overbearing prejudice, stupidity, learned ignorance and pedantic barbarism if you like, but yet a popular war. .. the means used by the insurgent nation cannot be measured by the commonly recognised rules of regular warfare, nor by any other abstract si andard but by the degree of civilisation only attained by that insurgent nation." (10) These ideas of Engels are of vital importance for the South African communists, not only for the faith in the revolutionary potential of the oppressed peoples, which has passed from Marx, Engels and Lenin to the whole communist movement, but also because they show, as the great Lenin said : "when a revolutionary war really does attract and interest the working and oppressed people.., such a revolutionary war engenders the strength and ability to perform miracles. I think (Lenin continued to say), that, what the Red Army has accomplished, its struggle, and the history of its victory, will be of colossal, epochal significance for all the peoples of the East. It will show them that, weak as they may be, and invincible as may seem the power of the European oppressors, who in the struggle employ all the marvels of technology and of the military art - nevertheless a revolutionary war waged by oppressed peoples, if it really succeeds in arousing the millions of working and exploited people, harbours such potentialities, such miracles, that the emancipation of the peoples of the East is now quite practicable... " (11) We also are faced with the task of preparing for and conducting a popular war. The South African racists are well armed and continue to intensify their preparations for a genocidal war against our people. Itself an imperialist country, South Africa is aided and abetted by world imperialism which is reaping super- profits from the inhuman exploitation of African labour power and of our natural resources. Revolutionary War Despite the might of the enemy, we are confident, as Marx, Engels and Lenin were, that our people, waging a revolutionary, people's war against racism, fascism and imperialism, will perform "miracles". Inspired and guided by the teachings of Marx, Engels and Lenin, members of your brother South African Communist Party are fighting side by side with their non-communist comrades in the frontline. Already some have laid down their lives, whilst others are languishing in Vorster's jails. To pay homage to Engels, to other heroes of the world working class, is not, as all bourgeois detractors claim, to forget our own national heroes. We draw inspiration from the exploits of the sons of our own working class as well, such communists as Johannes Nkosi, who died shot by the South African police in 1928, and Ivon Jones, leading theoretician of the South African Communist Party who died while on a mission to the Comintern in Moscow. In as much as it would be a fundamental mistake to cut off Engels, Marx and Lenin from the world proletariat and Johannes Nkosi, so would it be to cut off the South African proletariat and Ivon Jones from Engels, Marx and Lenin and the world proletariat. 50th Anniversary Next year we will mark an important event in our history, the 50th anniversary of the birth of the South African Communist Party. In our history we have striven to advance the cause of the working people, not only of our own country, but also internationally, because we are part of the great world anti-imperialist movement. Continuing this great tradition of proletarian internationalism, we salute the heroic peoples of Vietnam and Indo-China; we also express our solidarity with the Arab people struggling against US-backed Zionist aggression; we are at one with all the peoples fighting against imperialism, with the world socialist community, the international working class movement and the national liberation movement. We take this opportunity also to remind our enemies that nothing will shake us in our conviction and knowledge that the USSR, the GDR and other socialist countries are true to the principles of proletarian internationalism. The help that the socialist community gives to our struggling peoples, to heroic Vietnam, to the Arab East, to all peoples fighting to continue the struggle for national liberation, to the end, is a daily proof of the indissoluble ties of common struggle of all the antiimperialist forces. In commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Engels, friend and colleague of Marx, co-founder of scientific socialism we say Engels lives. His ideas, expressed not only in words, but also in the battle field, are an active force and inspiration to all the peoples fighting against imperialism, for socialism, democracy, national liberation and world peace. Long live the name and ideas of Engels! Long live the all-conquering ideas and practice of Marxism-Leninism! Long live the unity of all the anti-imperialist forces! 123

NOTES (1) V.I.Lenin: Collected Works, Vol.2, Moscow, 1963, p.24 (2) F.Engels: The Peasant War in Germany, Moscow, 1956, p.9. (3) Ibid., K.Marx to F.Engels, April 16, 1856, p.196. (4) Marx, Engels, Selected Works, Vol.2, Moscow, 1962, p.435. (5) Amat Dansoko, "'Socialist' Trends in Tropical Africa in the light of Engels' criticism of Utopian Socialism", in the World Marxist Review, Vol.13, No.9, 1970, p.43. (6) Engels to K.Kautsky (letter), in Marx, Engels: On Colonialism, Moscow, 1968, p.341 (7) L.Brezhnev: Speech at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in Moscow, Moscow, 1969, p.26. (8) Marx, Engels: Manifesto of the Communist Party, quoted in Marx, Engels: On Colonialism, p. 13. (9) Marx, Engels, Selected Works, Vol.2, "The origin of the family etc. " Moscow, 1962, p.254. (10) F.Engels: Persia and China, in Marx, Engels: On Colonialism, p.124. (11) V.I.Lenin: Address to the 2nd All-Russia Congress of Communist Organisations of the peoples of the East. Collected Works, Vol.30, Moscow. 124

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Permit me to join many others to offer you my warmest felicitations on your tenth anniversary. I wish you more successes in the years ahead. Perhaps you will understand why this contribution is coming up now. You know my country went through a civil war; and during that period I was within the area then called Biafra. I have just started receiving the previous publications despatched to me. In wishing the Editorial Board success in their future tasks, I think there are some viewpoints I would like to put across for the interests of Socialists in Africa. Marxism-Leninism has become the guideline of socialists everywhere. But I would like to say that Africans must be able to interpret socialism with purely African environments. Because it is only by so doing that we can evolve a way of lifting our society from the ruins of decades of imperialism. Africa must seek her own path of socialism. We African socialists must be wary in leaning too heavily on other countries for the salvation of our continent. Our approach must be to study Marx's and Lenin's works and apply them to the present day realities of Africa. Any copying 125 of a course trodden by others may in the end expose this continent to another form of exploitation. I do hope that the good work of the African Communist will continue towards the noble goal of serving Africa and humanity. We are passing through wonderful times in African history and I hope that when the full history will be written about the gallant fighters of African liberation, the African Communist will certainly occupy a pride of place with others. G. lfekamadu Ewuzie, Enugu, Nigeria. A "Dialogue" - With Whom and for What? The tactics of the imperialists vis-a-vis Southern Africa are indeed very interesting. The question of a dialogue with the white ruling class in South Africa, Rhodesia, Angola and Mozambique has been headline news not only in the press but also in the radio and other means of communication. There is nothing new in this. People like the Malawi President have been and are still the champions of maintaining relations with regimes that have been universally condemned and ostracised. The idea of a dialogue and maintainance of contacts has been for a long time the favourite theme in most imperialist countries. We have been lectured quite frequently that we should not isolate South Africa, that the maintainance of contact would in the long run liberalise the Southern Africa regimes, that the pouring of mammoth investments into South Africa would spell the end of apartheid. All these arguments have never convinced those who are fighting to overthrow the fascists and seize power; they know from experience that international investments strengthen the system; that international contacts give the white racists a considerable measure of respectability and reinforces his determination 126 to opress the black man. The imperialist countries having, received a crushing blow in their Southern Africa strategy have had to modify their approach. They have figured out that their strategy would be more plausible if it were presented by black men. Banda, Leabua Jonathan, Tsiranana were the first to come to the aid of their masters in Lisbon, Paris, London and Washington. They have been trying very hard to justify their traitorous collaboration with the fascist regimes in Southern Africa. They have portrayed themselves as well-meaning men of peace who want to bring about changes in South Africa but who abhor violence to achieve this. To us who are participating in a struggle to ovetthrow white domination, a talk of dialogue with our fascist rulers ilustrates a fundamental ignorance of the history of our struggle against white domination. The African people of Southern Africa have tried for more than fifty years to seek redress of their grievances through peaceful methods. On numerous occasions the African National Congress has called for a convention of all races to discuss the problems of our country. The white rulers of our country have always ignored these calls and instead arrested and tortured the leaders of these peaceful calls. The people of South Africa have not opted for violence because of an insatiable love for violence. They have no alternative, their peaceful protests have always been answered with rifles and sten guns. What do we expect the liberation movements to do in such a situation? Do we expect them to submit to white tyranny and look forward to the change of heart? We, as a liberation movement have chosen the path of struggle, we are going to use all methods at our disposal to bring down the rule of the white man in our country. We feel strongly that those who want to contribute to the struggle for the liberation of our people ought to consult us before making farreaching comments on the struggle. We would for instance be in a position to inform those who are campaigning for a dialogue with the fascists of the inanity of such a move. What they are advocating has been tried and it has failed. We shall tell these newly found champions of the interests of our people that they are sabotaging the interest of our people rather than helping them. What is even more perturbing is lack of mention of any role by the liberation movement in the proposed dialogue. We are forced to infer that the dialogue will be between Boigny, Banda, Tsiranana, Bongo and others on the one hand, fuehrer Vorster and his clique, on the other. The Mandelas, the Sisulus, the Mbekis and the Tambos have no role to play. The latter are the leaders of the African people of South Africa, so one would have expected that they would be the first people to be consulted by these new champions of a dialogue. The tactics and the strategy of our revolution are going to be decided by us who know the concrete conditions existing in our country. This does not mean that we shall notlisten to the advice of our friends. We have always studied and we still do the struggles of other countries who fought and still are fighting revolutionary wars. These experiences will help us in our monumental task of freeing our people. But we regard as sheer impudence any attempts to impose methods of struggle on us especially by people whose credentials are dubious. The Boignys, the Bandas, the Jonathans have got a stinking history of collaboration witi the imperialists. Banda's Malawi is a haven for the South African neo-colonialists, so is Lesotho. Ivory Coast is the mecca of French Imperialism. The hands of Banda are dripping with the blood of Malawi patriots, so are Leabua's Imperialist plots against progressive regimes in West Africa are hatched in the Ivory Coast. The memories of Biafra are still fresh in our minds. We have not forgotten that South Africa and Portugal were the champions of Biafran secession. So Boigny and Bongo find themselves once more talking the same language as Vorster, Smith and Caetano. It must be clear to all genuine African patriots that all these gentlemen are lackeys of imperialism, that their presence in the O.A.U. undermines rather than strengthens African Unity. Africa has got to wake up and face the dangers of aggresive South African colonialism. South Africa is creating around herself a ring of client states to make the task of infiltration by patriots difficult. At the same time it wants markets for its growing manufacturing industry. South Africa is playing exactly the same role the United States of America is playing in Asia. She wants to frustrate the liberation movement in the whole of Southern Africa. The talk of a dialogue is not only full of dangerous implications for South Africa but for the whole of Southern Africa. The Organisation of African Unity must realise that a time has come for Africa to look for a more meaningful unity, unity based on principles and common purpose. The sort of amorphous unity existing at the moment is not helping to advance the independence of the whole of Africa. The buffer zones that the fascists have created in countries like Malawi and Madagascar are a threat to the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of progressive countries. Africa must try to build revolutionary unity that will exclude potential agents of the imperialist countries. People like Banda and his type have no place in such an organisation. 128

In conclusion it must be pointed out that in matters affecting the liberation of the South, the organisations of the people must not only be involved in the discussions but must also participate as equals. The humiliating situation where delegates from liberation movements have to walk up and down corridors lobbying delegates to O.A.U.conferences must stop. This arrogance and paternalism must come to an end in the interests of forming a powerful continental liberation alliance to complete the gigantic task of liberation. A time has come for us to get rid of those forces in our midst which are detrimental to the successful liberation of/ the continent. Those African countries participating in the Revolution must look upon such participation as their revolutionary duty rather than as a burden. Once they take this attitude, they will appreciate the sacrifices involved and will be in a position to make realistic and objective appraisals of the struggle from time to time. J. Mbodla 129

POWDERED TYPHOONS UNWIND SLOWLY Leaving a day stunned with sun, a still evening sky of battle zone cools the steel of our razor front. The air clear no cloying no clutter of vision; no cold nip deters the simmered spirit, only wild odoured earth hard, dry and dust bedecked, a mindful scent of timeless continent. Here elephants roll and spray dark hides pumiced by sprinkled rock and roaming herds kick up ochre clouds. Without a wind or sodden rain powdered typhoons unwind slowly. Pushing through the scratch of bush a khaki file of dipping backs, pulled low by shoulder strap abrasion and weight of arms in harnessed cradle. The chant of life from hidden branches signals a pause then progress of the line. No man but lessons from the past traced steps through this ancient track; centuries of suffering equip for pain centuries of dying staunch the verging tear centuries of fighting steel this final test. Yet each heart feels its passion thumping each mind thinks out its reason fresh each man sees with eyes of thunder each man must be a lightning strike. 130

First a bite at white battalions then on to breach the dam wall door. Scarlet Whitman IDENTITY CARD I Register me I am an Arab Card No. fifty thousand Children, eight. The ninth will be born next summer. Are you upset? Register me I am an Arab Vocation cutting stone with the comrades. Must cut bread, clothes and books For the children, you know I will never stand at your door a beggar I am an Arab Are you angry? II I am nameless Patient where everything boils with anger I struck roots here Before the olive trees and the poplars A descendant of the plow pushers. My ancestor: a mere peasant, No family tree, My home: a cottage of reeds How is that for a man?

III Register me I am an Arab Color of hair: jet black Eyes: brown Distinguishing features: a Kuffia and Iqal on my head Hands rock hard and scratchy Favorite food: olive oil and thyme Address: a forgotten harmless village Where streets have no names And all men are in the fields and quarries. Is that good enough, IV You have stolen my vineyards And the land I used to till You haven't left anything for my children Except the rocks; And I heard it said That your government will expropriate Even the rocks. V Well then, Register first: I hate nobody Neither do I steal But when I am made hungry Then I will eat the flesh of my oppressor Beware of my hunger and anger. Mahmud Darwish Mahmud Darwish is a member of the Communist Party of Israel. He has been either in prison or under house arrest since 196Z 132

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